Character Creation: Monsters & Other Childish Things

Only two days with the kids there, of course, and no therapy because first up is divvying up caseload, setting up the space, etc. But, in happy news, I did get my first paycheck as a therapist rather than an intern, so that was pretty cool.

We watched Nightmare Before Christmas last night. I'd forgotten how truly creepy bits of that movie are, but Kai didn't seem to mind. Every time I watch that movie, I'm struck by how much more interesting it could have been with a little more attention to script and a little less attention to hokey song lyrics. And Oogie Boogie was just wasted. And wtf is up with his gambling thing? Is that like a "deal with the Devil" kind of idea? Conclusion: Tim Burton needs more zoloft or less, I can't decide.

(I'm aware that he didn't direct it, but it was definitely his work.)

Anyway, speaking of surreal child-related experiences:

The Game: Monsters and Other Childish Things
The publisher: Arc Dream
Degree of familiarity: I've read it. Uses the same One-Roll Engine as Godlike, but I've never played it. I do, however, have an ongoing interest in RPGs that have the players taking the roles of kids, obviously.
Books required: Just the core, which I purchased at GenCon.

Anyway, here's something weird about this game: It doesn't make a lot of the assumptions clear up front. Like, evidently these monsters are real, can eat people, can wipe the floor with SWAT teams, but there's not really a lot of word count devoted to what that's done to the world. But the game is just fun to read (it took me all of one night, while Nobilis took months and Fading Suns a week, and that was with skipping large sections), and I can see it being a lot of fun to play.

Basically, you're a kid who has befriended a horrible monster from outside time and space. This monster feeds on relationships, so it's in your best interests to keep your mom (or whoever) happy with you. It's also in your best interests to keep an eye on your monster, lest he go tromping off eating people.

So, with that in mind, I start with creating my kid. If you're keeping track, this is the third child character I've created.

My character's name is Mikey Robard. Mikey lives with his dad; his mom died a few years ago. Mikey says he doesn't remember much about her, but that's not really true. He remembers more than he'd like, he just doesn't have the words to talk about his memories or the way they make him feel. Mikey's close to his dad, and even though Dad works long hours, they always watch an episode of Animaniacs when Dad gets home. Mikey can't sleep unless they do.

Since I don't know when this game is "set," we'll say Mikey is 10 years old and not bother with a birthdate. He goes to John F. Kennedy Elementary, since there's a school named after JFK pretty much everywhere. His homeroom teacher is Mr. Ackman, and he's this big, balding friendly guy that reminds Mikey a little of his Grandad.

Mikey is a little slimmer than he was last spring. Folks think that's because he's hit a growth spurt, but actually it's because he spent the summer running after his monster making sure nothing bad happened. He keeps his hair buzzed (Dad finds it's easier to do that than spend money at the barber's, and Mikey likes the way it feels anyway). He likes pants with lots of pockets and Local Sports Team gear. Mikey's Favorite Thing is sports. He's not particular about the sport, and he's not a stats encyclopedia. He likes to play sports. He wants to play on a Little League team this spring; he's even got his bat and glove already.

A Good Thing he did: Mikey stayed after school last year to help his teacher (Mrs. Drepps, who retired) carry all her classroom stuff to her car. It took 10 trips.

A Bad Thing he did: Mikey threw out his parents' wedding picture over the summer. He's not sure why he did that. He was mad about something.

Stats. We've got five Stats: Feet, Guts, Hands, Brains and Face. They start at 1d, and I have 10 to divvy up. I know I want a good Feet score, as sporty as Mikey is, so I'll put 3d in there. Mikey's not the bravest of kids, but he's not a chicken, either, so I'll put 2d into Guts. Hands should be good, too, so I'll put 3d there, and that leaves 1d each for Brains and Face.

Skills. I get 15 points for Skills, and they start at 0. I know I want P.E.; again, sporty. I'll put 4d there. Wind had better get some dice (3). Courage needs a die or two; let's call it two. I'll put a die in Shop, just for the fun of it. That leaves five dice. I don't see Mikey being great with Out-Think, but maybe Notice. I'll put two dice there. The other three dice I'll put in Charm. Mikey's a nice kid, even if he's a little loud sometimes.

Relationships. I get six dice to sink into relationships. I can add these to various rolls if I can make the case that the relationship is a motivator. Obviously, the big one is Dad, and that gets 4 of my dice. For the other two, I put one into "Mr. Ackman" and one into "Mom." Just because she's dead doesn't mean Mikey doesn't love her.

And that's Mikey! Now for his bestest buddy!

Well, first off, I have to sketch the monster. Now, if you know me, you know that my artistic ability is about on pay with my daughter's, so this is perfect! I draw my monster and assign his hit locations. He's a big, hairy, four-armed ape-pig-thing. His name is Grunty. Grunty was sitting in the dumpster near Mikey's apartment one night when Mikey got home from the park, rooting around for scraps. They got to talking, and because fast friends. Mikey loves watching Grunty do one thing with his upper hands and something else with his lower hands, like playing video games and eating a sandwich (or whatever else is handy).

I put the upper arms as one hit location and the lower arms as another. I know on the picture it looks like right and left, but I changed my mind after I drew it. Bear with me.

Right, let's do the qualities and stuff.

Hit Location: 1-3. Name: Big, hairy, upper arms. Qualities: Attack, Defend, Useful (climb walls). Dice: 9. Extras: Spray, Awesome x2.

Hit Location: 4-6. Name: Small(er), hairy, lower arms. Qualities: Attack, Defend, Useful (long, nimble fingers - can hold or entangle). Dice: 7 Extras: Spray, Awesome x2, Wicked Fast 3.

Hit Location: 7-8. Name: Short, strong, hair legs. Qualities: Defend. Dice: 8 Extras: Wicked Fast 2.

Hit Location: 9. Name: Pig-like face with sharp pointy teeth. Qualities: Attacks, Useful (eat anything). Dice: 4.

Hit Location: 10. Name: Big, flabby body. Qualities: Defends. Dice: 3. Extras: Tough 2.

Now, for a little more about Grunty. Grunty hides by clinging to walls, ceilings, trees or whatever else is just above the visual line of adults. His Favorite Thing is "eating while doing something else," or "snacking," you might say. He loves to eat, but he only uses his top arms for that. His bottom arms get bored, and he can't eat with both sets at once, so he likes to play video games, mess with clay, or do a Rubik's cube while eating. So Mikey not only has to provide him with some edible (not hard, since he can pretty much eat anything) but something to do while he eats. And he hates crosswords.

And that's about it, actually. Ready for the ape-fights! 

 

Character Creation: Hollow Earth Expedition

Inhumanoids! Down to the fiery depths of the earth where nightmares...begin! "Who can stop 'em? Earth-Core, I hope! There's your Gen-X cartoon fix for the day.

The Game: Hollow Earth Expedition
The publisher: Exile Game Studio
Degree of familiarity: I've read it, and it uses the same system as Desolation, but that's about it.
Books required: Just the very beautiful core. 

HEX is, as you might guess, a pulp game of traveling into the dinosaur-laden inner world. Stats for giant boring (as in, "bores into the earth") machines, raptors, etc. Good stuff. Despite the girl on the cover who appears to be using magic, there's no system for it included, sadly. But that's quite all right.

I want to play a character who's down here in Hollow Earth because he figures that the natives (oh, there are natives) have a culture that no one's touched yet. He wants to know about their stories, their heroes, gods and villains, and he wants to see what concepts are truly eternal, truly universal, because maybe then he can learn some truth about the Divine. I think that makes my Archetype either Academic or Occultist, and because my character is so interested in learning about the ur-myths of the world, I'll go with the latter. Motivation: Definitely Truth. He's here to discover, not to have his existing world-view supported (which would be Faith).

Attributes! I get 15 points to split up. I want to make him fairly well-rounded, so:

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

Secondary Attributes! My Size is 0. Perception is 8, Move is 4, Initiative is 7, Defense is 4, Stun is 2, Health is 5.

Skills! (In pulp games, you have to use a lot of exclamation points.) I get 15 points here, too. Making my list:

Academics (Mythology) 5
Athletics 1
Empathy 3
Investigation 3
Linguistics 3

Talents/Resources! I get one (a Talent or a Resource). I'm likely to pick a Talent, methinks. I believe I'll take Charismatic. Raises my Charisma, which I think he'll find useful when dealing with natives.

Flaws! I'll take one, here. Overconfident. He assumes that the natives will welcome the chance to trade stories. He might wind up getting eaten for his trouble if he picks the wrong tribe.

Experience Points! I get 15. I want to be a little tougher, so I'll spend four and up my Athletics, and another four to up my Firearms. I feel like I should have some Skill that trades on my Charisma, so I'll buy two points in Diplomacy. That gives me one point left, that I can't do anything with. Bummer.

I get four languages beyond his native English. I take French and German, but I'll leave two slots open for learning native tongues in Hollow Earth. I note his gun, but I won't bother with other equipment, as that would kinda depend on the nature of the campaign.

A little background: James Hart was a promising doctoral candidate in folklore and sociology, but he started alienating people by looking for truth behind legends of heroes and myths. He finally revealed his theory about the source of such legends - a race of people who were truly godlike. Maybe the nephilim of Biblical myth, maybe the Titans, but something, some exalted race now extinct, but demigods compared to us. James kept going with that theory and subsequently lost his dissertation defense, but then the man funding this expedition came to him with an interesting proposal. He's good with languages, and a natural diplomat - perhaps he'd consider searching a civilization that no one else even knows about? James, obviously, jumped at the chance. 

Character Creation: Dark Ages: Werewolf

Forsooth! Awoo!

The Game: Dark Ages: Werewolf
The publisher: White Wolf
Degree of familiarity: Just a little bit. I developed the book, after all, and even ran it a bit a while back.
Books required: The Dark Ages: Werewolf book, and either the Dark Ages: Vampire book or the free Dark Ages rules download.

Ah, Dark Ages: Werewolf. If I had one book to do over, this would be it. Not because it turned out badly, because I don't think it did, but it's not really all that different from the modern incarnation of Werewolf: The Apocalypse, nor from the previous Werewolf: The Dark Ages. But then again, the culture at WW was very different then. They were still very concerned with changing any of the properties that were working for them (what you know as Vampire: The Requiem was originally going to be kept Vampire: The Masquerade, because of all the money and time that had gone into that property, f'rex), and I don't know how well a major change might have been received.

But if I had to do it over? I'd have cut off werewolves from the spirit world, at least for the most part. At a time when the average human being took so much on faith, werewolves, who up to that point had been used to knowing their place in the grand scheme of things, would be reduced to guesswork and making up stories, just like humans do. And that pissed them off. Rage, indeed.

But never mind that. I've got my copies of DA:V and DA:W, so let's get to it. Now, like Stew, I'm no historian. Go ahead, laugh or scoff (SCOFF!) about how inappropriate it was for me to be Dark Ages developer, but it's true. My focus is language and writing and English, not history, and I've never really been fascinated by it. Bad teachers, maybe? I dunno. Doesn't help that historical buffs tend to be dicks when they point out something you got wrong (Jesse Heinig once mentioned that any historical correction usually reads like it should be followed with "you idiot," and I don't disagree).

Man, looking through this book, it's amazing what you forget. I'd forgotten about the Prophecies. See, in the setting of the game, there was this werewolf named Songs of Shadows who popped into the spirit world, and then popped about in the year AD 1200 with 10 prophecies, one for each tribe. He delivered them to his tribe (the Red Talons, whoo!) and they went about spreading them around. This led to a change in status for that tribe, and all kinds of other craziness.

Lots of stuff I wish we'd been better able to follow up on. Ah, well. You might note, though, that in the full-pager before the Appendix, the very last line is: "And Thomas Skyfire knew that someday, it would all end. But somehow, after the last prophecy had come to pass, there would be something else."

And that, my friends, was me saying "I know you don't get this now, and 90% of you don't read these anyway, but the World of Darkness is going to end, but don't worry, because we're doing a new one, and it's going to rock."

OK, Step One: Character Concept. Well, I want to play a lupus character. That'd be "born of wolves, not people." Lived to sexual maturity in one of the great forests of Europe, and then Changed. I'll say that he Changed in response to his pack getting attacked and ultimately killed by a bane, a spirit of the Wyrm (wow, do you have any idea how fucking weird this is for me?). He Changed and attacked it, but only managed to drive it into the swamps (so we're somewhere with swamps...England, maybe?). A pack of Garou showed up and found him, and together they routed the beast. And it wasn't until after he'd been trained as a werewolf and taught how to deal with spirits and all that he learned the first thing about humanity. He's never seen a city, only small villages, and he's woefully ignorant in the ways of people, but rock-solid in his own People's customs. I'm think he's a Theurge, and tribe-wise, let's say Children of Gaia, because they're all over the damn place.

I mark Concept down as "Naive Ritemaster." His focus is going to be on rites, I think, and he's much more comfortable among werewolves than with anything that looks remotely human. Other werewolves call him Lowered Eyes, because he's always got his head down, but that's because he's always listening.

Step Two: Select Attributes. 7/5/3, as is the OWoD way. This is always hard for lupus characters. I'll got Mental first, then Physical, then Social, because I see him as being smart and sharp first and foremost. To wit, I'll put three points into Perception and Wits, and one into Intelligence. Over on the Physical side, I'll put two points into Dexterity and Stamina, and one into Strength. And Social gets one each across the board, though I might raise either Charisma or Manipulation later to help deal with spirits.

Step Three: Select Abilities. 13/9/5. I've got some restricted traits here, and most of them are Knowledges, so that'll be dead last. I'll put Talents first, then. Alertness, Dodge and Primal Urge all get three dots, because I can't put them higher without bonus points. Athletics and Brawl get two points. That's about the standard package for being a wolf.

Skills, I figure, why buck the trend? This guy's very focused on being a wolf. Three into Animal Ken, Stealth and Survival.

Knowledges. Three into Rituals, duh. One into Occult, the other into Enigmas. And that's Abilities done.

Step Four: Advantages. Five points into Backgrounds. This is always easy for werewolves. I'm tempted to throw all five points into Rites, but I want other stuff, too. One point into Hunting Grounds, one into Ancestors, the other three into Rites.

Now, Gifts. I get three, one for breed, tribe and auspice. For my breed Gift, definitely Ley Lines, which lets me sense the nearest caern. Auspice Gifts, I'll take Spirit Speech (handy for learning rites). And, for tribe...OK, why the Hell did I allow the Eve's Blessing Gift? Talk about fucking useless. And, while we're on the subject, what the fuck is that awful picture on p. 131? Oh, it's the Maw of the Whale Gift. Jesus. Cobb'd. Anyway, I'll take, hmm, Mother's Touch. It's not perfect for Eyes, but it's better than Resist Pain for him.

Step Five: Finishing Touches. I record my starting Rage (2), Gnosis (5) and Willpower (3) and get started on spending them bonus points!

First off, I spend two to bump Rites to five. I also spend two to raise my Rituals Knowledge to four. While we're over there in Abilities, I'll buy another of Enigmas and two of Empathy. That's 8 down, 7 to go. Hmm. More Willpower is always nice, so I'll spend 2 and buy it up to 5. I'll buy one more dot in Hunting Ground, to give Eyes a little more room to run. That's...4 points left. I'd like to buy the Sense Wyrm Gift, but I'd need three more bonus points. Fortunately, there are Flaws! I'll take Foe From the Past. The bane that attacked his pack before he Changed did so for a reason - it remembers Eyes' famous ancestor among the Children of Gaia, a mighty Ahroun named Eyes of Wildfire. It figured it could kill Wildfire's descendant while he was still a cub, but Eyes was just too clever and vicious. The spirit's still out there, though, probably lurking in the bog...

Anyway, that's all my points. But I've got to do rites yet! I get 5 levels, and I can take anything up to and including level 4 rites. Well, right off, I want the Rite of Cleansing. Eyes probably does it to his territory often. I'll take the Rite of Summoning and the Rite of Spirit Awakening, both level 2, and both good Theurge rites. I think I'd be working on learning more in a chronicle.

And that's it, because Specialties don't work the same way in Dark Ages as they do in other OWoD games. Neato. 

Character Creation: Alethia

Seven dogs is a lot of dogs. 

The Game: Aletheia
The publisher: Abstract Nova
Degree of familiarity: None. Matt sent me a copy for chargen purposes, so here we go.
Books required: Just my pdf. 

 
So, the basic idea here is the we belong to a group called the Seven Dogs Society, dedicated to investigating weird shit and solving the higher mysteries of the universe. But there's some fascinating history, here, too: Terrence Chastain, acting on orders from a truly exceptional man named Jericho Usher, formed the group using members of seven families, whose genealogies Usher mapped out to 2012...even though Usher himself vanished from sight in the 1970s. This is the third iteration of the Society, as it happens - the first one vanished, the second one all got shot in the head (except Chastain).

So, having read the history chapter and skimmed the chapter talking about the Society's headquarters in Alaska (looks awesome, but I want to get to the chargen), let's see what we've got.

The first thing I'm asked to do is conceptualize the character. Since we're in Alaska, and I enjoyed Insomnia, I want to make a character who wasn't born there (in the movie, a character says that you're either here because you're born here or you're running from something). So he's running from something. I think he's here because killed a man. The guy approached him on the street, while he was out walking with his girlfriend, and demanded money. Things got heated, and my character beat him to death. He was eventually acquitted on grounds of self-defense, but his lawyer played the race card pretty heavily (he's white, the guy who accosted him was black). My character felt ashamed, and couldn't go back to his life - yes, he'd been defending himself, but he'd killed someone, and that keeps him up nights. Finally, he packed a single duffel bag, put his dog into his car, and drove north, finally winding up in Seven Dogs.

My character, before the incident, was a security guard. He fancied himself pretty good at reading people, so why didn't he see that the man was a threat before the fight started? He keeps himself up nights thinking about that, too.

The character is now 28, and originally from, let's say, Columbus, OH, because it's a place I know. His name is Peter Bodine.

Motivation and Agenda. Peter was approached by Terrence Chastain after he'd lived in Seven Dogs for only a few months. Chastain showed him the genealogy of his family, and how his grand-uncle had been one of the original members, and then his cousin had wound up shot dead in the jungle in the second incarnation. None of that really influence Peter, but what did scare him was how he wound up in Seven Dogs. There are lots of towns in Alaska, and he picked Seven Dogs, he thought, because he liked the name. But to wind up on the doorstep of the secret society that he, out of seven families, was permitted to join? Too weird. He joined up, because that by itself was enough to show him that something was weird.

As for Agenda, Peter's not a scholar. He's not an investigator. He wants answers as to what happened that night, and now he's got a new worry - maybe something supernatural was happening with that guy. Maybe he was a monster or something. Maybe this society can absolve Peter of some of the guilt he feels.

(Side note: If I were running the game, Peter doesn't get off that easy. It was just as it is, he killed the dude because adrenaline kicked in and he hit him once too many times. Maybe something supernatural happened, but it was peripheral to the act itself. But anyway.)

So, Attributes. I get 8 points to spread among four Attributes. 2 is average. Peter is in shape, and he works hard to stay that way, so I want Fitness to be 3. Awareness has been heightened since his incident, so we'll put that 3, too. That leaves 2 points for Personality and Reason, and I can't go lower than 1, so there you have it.

Descriptors. I like this mechanic. I get to add an adjective to each Attribute, explaining how Peter is fit or whatever. So: for Fitness, I think Peter works hard to stay in fighting trim, even though he never wants to fight again. "Fighting Trim" sounds good, actually. For Awareness, Peter pays attention, so I'll label this one "Vigilant." For Personality, Peter's withdrawn and guarded, but as long as he's not doing the talking, he's OK. "Attentive." And, finally, for Logic, Peter better at seeing small details than the big picture. He's got a good memory, but he needs time to put it all together. "Hindsight."

Occupations. What my job was before I wound up here, and what level of experience I had. I can have more than one Occupation, if I can stretch my 5 points.

OK, "law enforcement officer" is a 4-star Occupation, but Peter wasn't a cop, so I'm going to take "Security Guard" and bust it down to a 2-star. He was pretty good at it, so I'll take it Professional. That eats 3 of my points. Since he's been out in Seven Dogs, he's been making money doing odd jobs, so I'll also take Handyman (one star) and upgrade to Professional (2 points, and that's all 5).

Extracurricular Skills. OK, now, this gets a little confusing. You get skills based on your Occupation(s), but which skills you get aren't set in stone or anything. It's based on logic and GM's discretion. Part of me is OK with that. Another part worries that this makes things a little too arbitrary. The other thing is, I guess you get your skills at the level of the Occupation, but that could be a little clearer.

Anyway, I've got no points left, so I don't get any Extracurricular Skills. But let's look at my Occupations and see what's appropriate. I'll take Athletics, Fighting, Investigation, Outdoors, Stealth and Repair (which I just made up) to represent my skills from my Occupations. I get a free Fighting Skill at Rookie, but since I already have that, I get to choose a new one. I'll take Computer.

Hobbies. I'm asked to pick a few Hobbies for Peter. No special mechanical advantage, here, just for flavor and to give me an idea of how to play him. I'll take Hiking (loves to walk), Wildlife (always carries binoculars and a field guide) and Hockey (in Alaska, it's probably state law).

Supplemental Points. I have to use these to buy Powers, but I can buy other stuff, too. I get 15. Let's do the Power, first, since I have to have one.

I don't see Peter as especially in tune with the psychic stuff in the world. I love Deja Visite, which means that I instinctively know the lay of the land anyplace I go. I'll blow 3 points and take that.

For my other 12 points, I spend four to raise Reason to 2. I'll spend two to buy Medicine at Rookie. Down to six. I'll spend 1 on a Descriptor for Fitness - Outdoorsman. I'll spend one more for another Awareness Descriptor - Sudden Changes. That leaves 4 points. Guess I'll pick up Shooting at Professional; he's gotten good at it since moving out here to God's nowhere.

Will starts equal to the star ratings of my Powers, which is 1. Suck.

And that's all. Peter is complete, and ready to go adventuring with the other six Dogs.

This game looks keen. I'd be interested to play it sometime. 

Character Creation: Army of Darkness

And now:

The Game: Army of Darkness
The publisher: Eden Studios
Degree of familiarity: Some. I'm reasonably familiar with the Unisystem, and I played AoD once at Origins.
Books required: Just the Army of Darkness book, which is very pretty. 

 
OK, so you can play the characters from the movie, but how lame. The book actually includes several variant worlds, one of which is a "Future Dead" world. It's the director's cut, where Ash sleeps too long and the world is a wasted holocaust when he wakes up. In the backstory given in the book, the Deadites emerged, everybody started nuking everybody, and there are a few thousand people left alive, mostly in London, living underground and terrified.

And that's where my character is living. He's been on his own for months, looking for other survivors, but he knows that Deadites can look human, so he trusts no one. He's tight lipped and he lies like a rug, because he's also aware that Deadites use personal information to get under your skin. He's got no family left (he's from Michigan, and was over in London on business when the world got weird), as they were from Michigan, which is pretty much demonized wasteland now, since it's where the infestation started. He desperately wants to connect with people again, though.

I see this guy as a Hero, though not an Experienced Hero (a la Ash himself). His name is George Drepps, but he goes by "Brock" nowadays. It was his dog's name when he was a kid. He just reckons it's not safe to use his real name. Brock was a big, strong, bulldog, so taking his name seemed like a good bet. What do you, the world is fucking radioactive?

I get 20 Attribute points. I want high Constitution (I'm still alive, right?). I'll put that at 5. Brock is damned hard to hurt. I'll put Strength at 4, and Dexterity at 3; both above average. That leaves 8 points for the other three. I'll keep Intelligence at 2 (average) and put Perception and Willpower at 3. Brock might have been smarter before circumstances forced him to eat rats.

OK, now 20 Qualities. I love Cinematic Uni. OK, right off, Buff Guy. I'll take the four-point version, which ups two of my Physical Attributes and gives me two free points in a physically-oriented Skill. I'll put my Constitution to 6 and my Dexterity to 4.

Fast Reaction Time: Yes, please. Two points. Hard to Kill, very yes. I'll take all five points. That's 11 points down, 9 to go. Natural Toughness, in keeping with my theme of being hard to hurt. Also Nerves of Steel - no reason it shouldn't extend there. 4 points left. Well, heck, let's dump two into Resistance (Demon Powers) and two into Resistance (Radiation). That's all 20.

Now, I can take up to 10 points in Drawbacks. I'll probably put them into Skills rather than more Qualities, but there are a couple that I know I want. First off, I want Mental Problems (Paranoia). Just 1 point, but Brock always assumes that anyone could be a disguised Deadite. I'll take Tragic Love; Brock might assume you're a Deadite, but flutter the eyelashes and he's ready to go to the mat with for you. That'll do.

Now, 20 points in Skills, bearing in mind that I get two free for Buff Guy and I've got 5 Drawback points that I could use here.

OK, I'll take a point in Computers. He remembers how to use one, but it's been a while. Two in Doctor - he holed up in a bookstore and read the medical section, and he's had to splint his own leg once or twice. One in Driving (again, been a while). Five in Getting Medieval - he's fond of baseball bats. Five in Gun Fu - he's American, so he pretty much has to know guns, this game being set in England, where they're all like, "I say, guns? Protecting yourself from intruders? Not here, old boy! We just let burg-u-lars take whatever they might wish!"

Or is that Canada?

Anyway, that's 13, but assume the 2 from Buff went into those, so I have 9 more to spend without touching my Drawback points. Knowledge 2, Kung Fu 3, Mr. Fix-It 3, Notice 5, Sports 1. Whoops, I seem to have burned my 5 Drawback points, too. Ah, well.

So, that's all, then! Brock is ready to enter the radioactive wasteland that used to be Earth, and fight off the Army of Darkness. Also look for love.

Character Creation: Nobilis

Big white whale, big white book, whatever. 

The Game: Nobilis
The publisher: Hogshead, then Guardians of Order, now Eos.
Degree of familiarity: None. I just finished reading the Great White Book, and honestly I'm a little intimidated.
Books required: Just the Nobilis book. I'd smoke some weed before doing this if I had any.

HA HA! Another funny joke! Like the bodies one! Please don't shoot me, DEA!

 
Nobilis is a fantastic game. By that I mean, you read it and you have the same reaction as, say, Harry Potter on his first trip down Diagon Alley. OMG. It's so amazingly literate. The sidebar quotes quite literally gave me chills on a lot of occasions, and they're apparently all written for the book, rather than snagged from pop culture the way WW used to do it. And quite apart from playing starting characters that suck ass (D&D, In Nomine, the list goes on), you're playing the metaphysical incarnation of anything you want.

At least, I think you are. And that's the thing - it's a rich game. Rich like the RPG equivalent of Van Gogh's Bad Cafe (awesome book, you should read it, but it's not light reading, IMO). It's high concept stuff, and I honestly have a little trouble imagining how it would play out. And, I'm not too proud to admit that after reading it, I'm still a little fuzzy on exactly what the heck is going on. I suspect that the best way to approach this would be to just play the game as written and not sweat the hidden, symbolic stuff, because on its face, it started to make sense a few times. (Doesn't help that I read the book in spurts over the course of a month.)

With all that in mind, let's get to it. I'm creating a Noble, a human being empowered by an Imperator. Now, normally I'd make a character with the other players, and we'd probably all play characters enNobled by the same being, but, again, it's just me. Fortunately, I've got a concept.

He's got many names, but for now, call him "Riz." It's short for "risible," which is something that makes you smile, which is appropriate, because the risorius muscle is the one that makes smiling possible. But he's not the Power of Smiles or anything. Riz is the Power of Cognitive Dissonance. That, by the way, is the process by which someone who knows stealing to be wrong can still do it, whether it's downloading a movie off a torrent site or walking out of a store with a DVD in his pocket. That's the method by which a man who loves his family can still cheat on his wife. Or, for that matter, how someone who claims to be a fundamentalist Christian can ignore every part of the Bible that asks her to give up money to the poor when asked (and thus walk right by those bums on the sidewalk). Holding two contradictory views and believing both at the same time. That's the mark of intelligence.

That's Riz's story, and he's sticking to it.

Anyway, let's get started. This is a diceless system, so obviously it's point-buy for the character creation. I have four Attributes: Aspect, Domain, Realm and Spirit. I get 25 points to buy these things up.

I think I want Domain 3. That will allow me to create cognitive dissonance with minimal effort, but more importantly, it allows me to preserve it with no effort. Thus, I can stop people from choosing sides, and keep them acting in opposition to what they know would be the more "moral" thing to do (or, conversely, stop them acting against those morals even when it would be prudent and harmless to do so). That costs me 9 points, and makes Riz the Marquis of Cognitive Dissonance, which is awesome.

Right. Spirit is the other one I want high. In fact, I'll buy it at 4. Yikes. But Riz is definitely strong-willed, and a little vain. That's 12 points, for a total of 21. Yeep.

OK, two left: Realm and Aspect, and only 4 points left. I don't know that I want to try and figure out how to get more points from Hindrances, so I think I'll dump 3 of my points into Aspect. That allows me to do things with no expenditure like computing cube roots, remember my own birth, and catch arrows. That also leaves me with a Realm of 0, but I'm OK with that. I see Riz as a more world-wide kind of Power, anyway.

That leaves me with one more point, but I'll see if I can't find a Gift to buy with it. Let's check. OK, I like Unblemished Guise. I can pretend to be human so well that even I believe it sometimes (though not real strongly, as I can only afford it at one point).

Right, now, Bonds. I get 20 points to divvy up here.

5 points: The Sanctity of Cognitive Dissonance.
3 points: Making sure that humanity doesn't see things in black and white. There must always be variance.
3 points: The Duke of Memory (hi, Stew!). If people couldn't build memory upon memory, they would only be able to react to what was right in front of them, and there's no dissonance there. The Estate of Memory and the Estate of Cognitive Dissonance make each other possible.
2 points: John Givler, pickpocket, shoplifter and generally selfish brat who volunteers at a soup kitchen every week, like clockwork (Anchor)
2 points: Father Tony Giggins, Catholic priest and hardnosed dogmatist. Riz hates him so. (Anchor)
2 points: The Power of Hypocrisy, whoever that might be. Riz doesn't really like her. The whole point of Cognitive Dissonance is to believe both viewpoints, not say one thing and believe another. That's easy.
1 point: His Imperator. He doesn't care enough to admit it, but he cares.
1 point: Mandy Hardman, chronic alcoholic who somehow manages to remain functional (Anchor)
1 point: Will O'Rourke, TV shock jock who loudly champions the need for honesty and impartiality in the media while shilling for his neo-con masters (Anchor)

Hindrances and Affiliations. Well, I have to choose an Affiliation. I could make one up, but really, I like the Code of the Dark. It fits pretty much perfectly with Riz's agenda.

As for Hindrances, I like the Cigarette Bond restriction. Riz has to befriend anyone he sees smoking, but since smokers are often masters at cognitive dissonance (they have to be - it's not like you can not know that cigs will kill you nowadays), he's OK with that. It also means that he can't resist the offer of a smoke. I'll also take Light Touch. That's a bitch - I can't work miracles through my Anchors unless they agree to it - but I'd plan on thoroughly manipulating those guys anyway, to the point that even if they know I'm bad news, they'll let me in, because they also know I'll help them later.

Design. Oy. I'm no artist. For my flowers, I pick Aster, the Flower of Variety, and Amaranth, the Flower of Immutable things. The only immutable thing is variety. The only constant must be constant turmoil. Making a decision in the midst of conflicting fact is the only way a human being can be truly brave, wise, and probably screwed. These two flowers entwine on a spiral background of black and red vines - the colors of the Dark.

Wounds levels. I get 5, which means I get 1 Deadly, 2 Serious and 2 Surface.

And that's pretty much it. I'd note stuff about Chancel and Imperator, but that's group stuff, and I ain't got one. 

Character Creation: Deadlands

 A Little Meatier: Finished.

Now, the question is, can I get 25,000 words of Splish Splash done before 9/1, which is when final drafts of the book I was just redlining...did I ever give that a funny name? I could call it Get Off My Bloody Lawn, I guess.

Anyway, I might not get all of it done before 9/1, but it's not due until mid-September, so as long as I can get, say, 20K done before I go to Pennsylvania next weekend, I should be OK. So I'm done working for today, and it's only 3:30, which feels pretty good. I shall now do something I enjoy: Make a character. Ah, but what? I don't want to do one that'll take me all day, but I worry about saving the Tri-Stat characters (which take a while because they're point-build) for last, because then I'll have no leverage at all to do one that's quick.

Hmm. OK, let's do this:

The Game: Deadlands
The publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment.
Degree of familiarity: Never ran it, but played a bit with my brother back in the day, and of course there's a currently-on-hiatus game.
Books required: Just the Deadlands book, but since I have Quick and the Dead, I may use it.

 
Deadlands, the game of the Weird West and a weird system, but one I rather enjoy. Yes, it's bizarre and uses cards, too many different dice, and some wonky-ass probabilities, but I've never had anything but fun with it.

OK, so I play a huckster in the above-linked game. I'd like to do something different this time around. I've been listening to this book on CD that my kiddo got from Wendy's or someplace that involves a cowboy who originally came to the West to write a book, and wound up wrangling herds of wild horses. I think that's a workable concept - a guy whose not originally from 'round these parts, but is part of the local scene now. He's even forgotten his original purpose in coming out here. I don't think I want to make it about a book, though. I think his original purpose was to find a man, the man who his brother asked him, while dying in the streets of New York, to kill, thus avenging his death. But it's been years, and my character has lost sight of that vow.

And in a way, that's good, because the guy he's sworn to kill isn't really human anymore (not that my character knows that).

My character's real name is Rick Bell, but since he's from New York, most folks call him "Easter" (short for "Easterner"). It just kind of stuck.

Right, so that's Concept. Now we do Traits. I break out a brand-new deck of cards, shuffle, and deal 12 cards: 8H, KC, 7S, 10D, 8S, 6C, 5C, 3H, 7H, KD, 4D, Joker (woo!). Drawing a card for the Joker's Coordination gets me: Spades! Rock out!

OK, so the way this works is that the suit tells you Coordination (number of dice) and the card tells you the type of die. So right now, I've got:

4d12 (thanks to that Joker)
3d6
1d10
4d6
2d8
4d6
1d6
1d6
3d6
3d6
2d10
2d6

Well, balls. Doesn't take much thinking to figure which ones I want to jettison. I'll lose the two 1d6s, thanks. While I'm thinking about it, I'll draw for my Mysterious Past, since I got a Joker (normally the Marshall would do this, but y'know). I get a 10H, so checking the back of the book, I have a Favor. Apparently I did someone a good turn a while back, and now he can bail me out of trouble at certain points. Interesting. I'll let that percolate while I assign my Traits.

I want this guy to be good in a gunfight, so that'll mean keeping Quickness and Deftness high. Likewise, Nimbleness deals with Horse Ridin', so I want some points there. I think I'll throw my massive 4d12 into Deftness, and my two 4d6s into Nimbleness and Quickness. I don't want to die easily, so I'll put 3d6 into Vigor. I'll put 2d8 into Strength - I'm no powerhouse, but I get by.

Easter's not educated, but he pays attention, so I'll throw 3d6 into Knowledge. I want to be a decent tracker, so I'll put 2d10 into Cognition. I'll put 3d6 into Smarts and 2d6 into Mien (he's a nice guy, but not someone you notice, really). That leaves 1d10 for Spirit. That's OK - I like that the Coordination is low, but his potential there is high.

Traits:
Deftness 4d12
Nimbleness 4d6
Quickness 4d6
Strength 2d8
Vigor 3d6
Cognition 2d10
Knowledge 3d6
Mien 2d6
Smarts 3d6
Spirit 1d10

Now, Aptitudes. I get 22 points for these Skill-like things. Let's get to it.

Well, duh. We'll start with Shootin' (Pistol). I'll put 3 there. To complement that, we'll do 2 into Quick Draw and 2 into Speed-Load (Pistol). Better take a point in Fightin' (Boxing). Definitely 4 in Horse Ridin'. One in Sneak, one in Teamster. Three in Trackin'. One in Scrutinize. One into Search (which is really 2, since I get a free point). Two into Trade (Telegraphy) - that was Easter's job back East, before his brother's death got him out here. That last point will go into Guts. He's seen some shit since he's been here.

Hindrances. I can take up to 10 points, and use them to buy Edges or Aptitudes. Since I don't have to worry about spells with this character, that'll be nice. OK, let's see what we got here.

I'll take Curious. It's 3 points, it's pretty much required for PCs, and I figure it's a big part of why Easter's brother is still unavenged. I need Enemy to represent my brother's killer. He's a badass, but he's not really tracking me (not yet), so I'll just take him at 1 point. Heroic - see Curious. 3 Points.

I waffle about Oath a little, but in the end, I think it fits. It's why my dude's out here, after all, it's just that he gets distracted easily. 1 point. That's the end of the useful ones from the core, so I take Tuckered from The Quick and the Dead, for 2 points. I figure Easter got laid up with some nasty lung butter for a while, and sometimes, well, he just loses his wind.

Edges. I have 10 points to use, but if I want to up Aptitudes, I'll have to use these points, too. Let's see. I'll take Brave; that adds to Guts checks. I'll take Sense of Direction; sounds good for someone who's navigated his way cross country. I'm tempted to take Veteran of the Weird West, but honestly I think Easter's experiences have been more on the mundane side of things...so far. I will, however, take a point of Belongings, to represent my Fast horse (not Bad Horse).

The other six points go into Aptitudes. I'll boost Shootin' to 5 (2 points) and put 2 into Fannin' (4 points). My last two go into Shootin' (Rifle) and Survival (Desert).

I get $250 to buy shit. I know I want a good pistol, so I'll lay out the money for a Peacemaker. And the gun belt, and the quick-draw holster. I'll buy a Winchester, too, for huntin', and some rounds for both. I'll just throw in $25 for clothes in general. Canteen, backpack, bed roll, lantern, rope, shovel, saddle, saddlebags, hatchet. That probably leaves me some money leftover, but screw it.

And that'll about do it, actually. Oh, right, there was that favor. Well, I think what happened was this: That lung butter I mentioned earlier was the result of wading into a river to pull out a young lady whose stage had overturned. She was grateful. Easter got deathly ill, but got top-notch medical treatment. Turns out the young lady was the daughter of a very rich Confederate industrialist, and he always looks after those that do him a good turn. Easter doesn't know who she was or who paid his doctor bills, though he does wonder sometimes.

And that's about it. 

 

Character Creation: Heroes Unlimited

Coming down with con crud. Blah. Kind of glad Changeling was canceled for tomorrow, as I think I should rest.

Anyway, I've been looking forward to getting back into this. On we go!

The Game: Heroes Unlimited
The publisher: Palladium Books
Degree of familiarity: Not much. I ran it once or twice back in high school, but Marvel Superheroes was a better system. Superheroes running around with guns just fucked with me. Plus the system is wonky as hell. Plus you can turn gay if you go crazy (seriously, wtf?). But, it definitely did a lot to help me understand that there were different ways of doing the same kind of game, and I have to say that I enjoyed seeing the various kinds of superheroes broken out into classes.
Books required: Just the core.

 
OK, the character creation system is annoyingly random. But, since I'm doing this by the book, let's try it.

Step One: The 8 Attributes and Attribute Bonuses. I roll 3d6 for each of the eight attributes. Since Stew's always raving about it, I'll try random.org. I guess I assign these in order, which gives me:

Intelligence Quotient (IQ): 13
Mental Endurance (ME): 5
Mental Affinity (MA): 18
Physical Strength (PS): 9
Physical Prowess (PP): 16
Physical Endurance (PE): 18
Physical Beauty (PB): 11
Speed (Spd): 5

Now, for every Attribute over 15, I roll one more die and add the result. That changes MA, PP and PE to 21, 19 and 21, respectively.

Now I figure out bonuses. Bonuses only apply if the stat is over 16, which means that I only get bonuses for MA, PP and PE. In particular, I get 65% to trust/intimidate, +2 parry/dodge/strike bonus, and +12% save vs. coma/death and +3 save vs. poison and Magic. Whatever all of that means.

Step Two: Determine Hit points and SDC. Hit points: Starts at PE (21) and adds a d6 = 27. OK, sounds good.

SDC: Determined by hero category. Which I roll in Step Three. Nice going, Kevin.

Step Three: Determining Super Abilities. The book actually says I can choose or roll, but I think I'll stay random and roll. If I get something that I think sucks, I might reroll. I roll 72, which indicates "Magic." Hmm. I had an idea for a magic character, but I was saving it for Mutants and Masterminds or Silver Age Sentinels, something that allows me to build the character that I want. Plus, I don't know that I have the Mental Endurance to be magicy, but I'm not sure that matters. OK, screw it, let's try this out.

Going to the Magic chapter, I can choose or roll the source of my power. No sense in getting decisive now. My powers were Bestowed on me by a creature of magic.

Reading the description, it's pretty obvious that we're emulating heroes like Captain Marvel (him, not her) and Thor. I can get behind that. As a Bestowed person, I add MA by 2d6 (for a total of 27), PS by 2d6 with a minimum of 20 (15, so up to the minimum), PP by 1d6 with a minimum 18 (it's already at 19, so the extra die gives me 25) and Spd is multiplied by 2d4 (30). All of those changes only apply when I'm transformed. I have to do something in order to take my heroic form, which is pretty cool.

The book points out that a Negate Magic spell can utterly fuck me, as it strips my hero of his magical prowess and form and returns me to normal for a while. Bummer. I can choose between super powers or spells, or rolling on a table. Random it is! My roll gives me 10 magic spells and +1 to save vs. magic. Hmm. OK, let's try it.

I finally get to choose something, so I'll look over the spell list and see what jumps out. Some of them "cost" several spell slots, so that's something to watch out for. I guess I should conceptualize a little first. I think my character is really freaking lazy. He's quick, he's smart, he's just a bum who's figured out how to play the system - he went on disability and has managed to avoid notice long after his injury healed. One night, he watched an old lady get mugged for her purse by a 12-year-old punk, and while he could have stopped the kid, he didn't. Turned out, that old lady was an angel in disguise, giving him his one last chance at redemption. Now he's got a karmic debt to repay, but she was nice enough to give him super powers to help with that debt.

More specifically:

Armor of Ithan (2 slots)
Blind
Fly as the Eagle
Impenetrable Wall of Force (3 slots)
Magic Net
Restoration (2 slots)

Note: Nothing fatal, and more protective magic. This guy's meant to be helping people more than harming them. Sometimes that means striking them blind with the Light of Justice.

Anyway, that's that. I get 20 SDC, plus either 3d4 or 2d4 X 10 while in hero form, depending on which column you're looking at (nice work, Kevin). I'll assume it's 3d4 x 10 = 120, meaning I've got 140 SDC in hero form, right now. Skills can evidently raise that. Which is handy, because I think Education is the next step.

Step Four: Education and Skills. Yep. I roll. Doctorate or PhD program. Heh. That's oddly appropriate. I figure him for a liberal arts kind of guy, something that allows him to think he's doing some good for the world. Sociology, maybe. Anyway, I get 4 skill programs and 10 secondary skills, with a +35% bonus to all my scholastic skills. Good grief, this will take all night. I'll take one Language Program, one Journalist/Investigation, one Science, and one Technical.

Scholastic Skills:
Mathematics: Basic: 98%
Read/Write English: 90%
Speak English: 90%
Spanish: 90%
Greek: 90%
Hebrew: 90%
Computer Operation: 98%
Intelligence: 81%
Photography: 85%
Writing (Journalistic Style): 73%
Mathematics: Advanced: 98%
Biology: 80%
Chemistry: Basic: 90%
Chemistry: Analytical: 85%
Art: 79%
Writing (Prose): 73%

Secondary Skills:
Hand to Hand: Martial Arts (+3 to pull/roll with punch, fall or impact)
Athletics (general) (+1 to parry/dodge, +1 to strike with a body block/tackle, +1 to roll with a punch or fall)
Prowl: 54%
First Aid: 55%
Weapon Proficiency (Chain): +1 to strike
Pilot: Automobile: 84%
Escape Artist: 35%
Basic Mechanics: 44%
Basic Electronics: 45%

Step Five: Round Out the Hero. Which means "choose alignment." I choose Principled, not because my hero really is that great a guy, but because he's acting that way because it's required of him to get his karma back in balance.

And the rest of it. My character's real name is Seth Stein (following the great alliterative tradition of comic book names). Seth was a doctoral candidate and a bit of a jack of all trades, but never quite finished his dissertation. He had a job that he hated, so when he wrenched his back one day, he figured he just wouldn't go back, even after he'd healed up. You know the rest.

As a costumed hero, Seth stands taller, straighter and prouder. When he speaks an ancient invocation that, roughly translated, means "Let me stand in balance with myself," he becomes The Warden. Garbed in royal blue armor and an obsidian helmet, he protects those who are unjustly beset by evil. And he hates every minute of it, but deep down, he knows that this is his only shot at redemption for being a lazy ass. And, secretly, he grooves on the booming resonance that his voice gets when he takes his heroic form. 

Character Creation: Adventure!

Who knows what evil etc etc.

The Game: Adventure!
The publisher: White Wolf Game Studio
Degree of familiarity: Not much. I played it once at MarCon some years back, and people made characters for a chronicle in Atlanta, but then drama ripped the game apart.
Books required: Just the core.

That bit above oughta give you a clue as to where I'm going. 

OK, Adventure! is White Wolf's pulp game. We start off making a normal human character, and then the character becomes Inspired.

Now, I loved the Shadow when I was a kid. The folks who used to drive me to grade school had a bunch of Shadow cassette tapes, and I knew "Death from the Deep" by heart at one point in my life. I would love to see radio drama return via the Internet (watch, someone's going to post a link now and I'll feel dumb). And Lamont Cranston...hell, yeah. So, despite having done the dark-shadowy hero routine a few days ago (here), I'm going to do it again.

Step one, of course, is Concept. My character is from humble origins. The son of a country doctor, he went to the Big City to visit his uncle and walked in to find said uncle dead, murdered by a robber. Amazed and sickened, he grilled the policeman on what would make a man do this kind of thing. He dedicated his life to understanding the criminal mind, becoming expert in sociology and psychology in the process.

There, so Origin is "Philosopher." I can take a dot of Followers or Sanctum. I like Sanctum better.

OK, now I choose Nature. For Virtue, I choose Explorer. It's an odd choice, but he wants to learn about the mind and the soul, and to him, that journey is the most important thing in the world. For Vice, I pick Caregiver. As he learns more about the "criminal mind," he learns how dire straits turn otherwise law-abiding folks into criminals, and he knows that if the more fortunate people stopped to help, this could be avoided.

For Allegiance, I consider being Independent, but I like the International Detective Agency. Interestingly, their work is really peripheral to his cause, but it puts him in contact with the criminal element, and that's perfect. I note one dot of Backing from that.

Step Two: Choosing Attributes. I get 6/4/3 in this game. I'm definitely Mental first, then Social, then Physical. I think he's not by nature an athletic person, but he'll make up for that with skills.

Mental: I put two into Perception, three into Intelligence, and one into Wits. Smart and sharp, not so witty.

Social: One each into Appearance and Manipulation, but two into Charisma (makes a good first impression).

Physical: One each across the board.

Step Three: Choose Abilities. No categorization here, I just get 23 points to spend, but I can't go above three in any one of them. OK, let's do it.

Man, those go fast. I put one into Martial Arts (I'll raise it later) and three into Stealth. I throw two into Awareness and three into Investigation (detective!). I put three into Academics, because I'm a scholar, and one each into Bureaucracy and Medicine. Two into Science (good with chemistry). Three into Disguise (Holmes, Cranston, Wayne, and me), two into Subterfuge, one into Command and one into Intimidation. I can already see my freebies or whatever are going to get dumped into Skills.

Step Four: Backgrounds. I get six points to spread around here. Well, since I'm shadowy and mysterious, I'll need Cipher. Three points. I want to have a secret crime lab, so I'll put two more points in Sanctum. My last point goes into Mentor - the Old Man of my local IDA chapter.

Step Five: Finishing Touches. Willpower 3, Inspiration 0, Initiative 4, Movement speeds 4/14/26. Bonus points: I get 15. I'll add a Sociology Specialty to Academics, and a Criminal Mind Specialty to Investigation. I buy two dots in Athletics, one in Firearms, one in Legerdemain, one in Resistance, and one more in Martial Arts. Last point goes into Cipher - terribly mysterious.

Phase Two: Transformation. Here's where the real fun starts. I get 1 Inspiration, and I have to figure out what happened to my character to make him who he is. I think his Inspiration happened gradually. As he searched for the answer - why morality meant everything to some people and nothing to others, he came to realize that he was possessed of a mind that was truly extraordinary. He tested his theories, always continuing with his studies - interviews in prisons, discussions with DAs and cops, posing as a reporter, even getting arrested to spend time among the down and dirty. And finally he understood. It wasn't enough to watch. If he wanted understanding, he had to make things happen. He had to go where the discoveries were.

He's definitely a mesmerist, so I'll mark that down. Now, I define the Inspiration. I only have 1 Inspiration point now, and it definitely goes into Reflective. I might put some into Intuitive later if I have the points.

And now, Transformation points! Whoo! I get 13, and I need to be careful not blow them all on Abilities.

First off, let's put three points into Abilities. That gives me 15 dots to throw around. I want to jack Academics, Investigation, Stealth, Disguise and Martial Arts to 5. That takes 11 of them. For the other 4, I'll put two into Legerdemain, and one each into Athletics and Awareness. I may come back and do more here.

OK, three into Attributes gives me six dots to throw around. I put them into Dexterity, Stamina, Perception, Wits and Charisma. I've spent six Transformation points thus far; down to 7 total.

Better buy a Knack or two. I know I want Cloud the Mind, and I think that Command Voice and Brain Skimming are awesome, too. Problem is, those latter two work on Abilities I don't have. Hmm.

OK, I'll suck up the four points to buy Cloud the Mind and Command Voice. That leaves me with three points left. With one, I'll buy Command up to 5 and put the other point into Rapport. I'll spend one on Willpower, raising it to 5. And the last one goes into Backgrounds: Resources 2, Contacts 2.

The last bit is Details. First, I recalculate my traits now that I've raised stuff. I have a bashing soak of 3, and no lethal soak (my plan is to be unnoticed). I put my other Inspiration point into Intuitive facet. And now the story bits.

Malcolm Danvers made the decision to walk out the door one night and stop any crimes he could find. He found them, all right. He found muggers, mob beatings for protection, rapes and assaults, kidnapping. He found that criminals would often throw down their weapons at the sound of his voice, and that they could never quite draw a bead on him, but that wasn't enough. He needed to know how to take the fight to them. He became expert in tracking them down and in fighting them off, studying the fighting techniques of the Far East with members of Asian gangs. He learned to use guns, but refused to carry one. He wanted to understand, not kill.

He wasn't exactly clean, though. There was money at the scene of crimes, and he was happy to take it. He discovered a mob house in the course of an investigation that no one had ever signed for, and so he took it. It's in a valley, and once he makes the turn-off onto his drive, the road dips and makes him almost impossible to follow (Sanctum gets one special trait; that's it).

Malcolm Danvers is, by day, a scholar, sociologist and sometime journalist. He's considered somewhat an expert in criminal investigation, but he doesn't think of himself as a detective. His real passion is his nocturnal work, when he dons a gray suit, a wide-brimmed hat, a long gray coat, and his signature red scarf. Criminals remember white gloves, too, and soft-soled shoes that never make a sound. Malcolm hasn't built up much of a reputation in the underworld yet, but he prefers to remain anonymous. But once in a while, a drunk criminal in a bar tells the story of how a man that he never quite saw came from out of the dark and disarmed him. The voice comes from all around, and it asks questions, questions of a personal nature. Why do you steal? Whom do you seek to protect? Do you regret what you've done? Would you go straight, if you could get away with this one crime?

One criminal asked his name, once. Malcolm replied, "I am the Querent - the one who seeks answers."

Character Creation: Nightlife

Before there was a World of Darkness... 

No, not Exalted. I don't even have that book anymore. No, tonight, I'm going further back than the WoD, to the game that could have been the WoD if it had been just a little better written, designed, promoted and fortuned. I speak, of course, of Nightlife.

(Also: I wrote 7700 words today. About Damn Time is done. Rule.)

The Game: Nightlife
The publisher: Stellar Games, based in Swanton, Ohio (just outside my hometown of Toledo), now long dead.
Degree of familiarity: Some. I ran it, but it's been a long damn while.
Books required: Just the core. I'm using the big thick version, but there was a little skinny one, too. Anyway, since I'm not making a sorcerer, I don't need any sourcebooks.

 
Nightlife. Yeah, the art is cheesy. Yeah, it has some really awful writing in places. Yeah, it's more poorly edited than any given White Wolf book. But you know, it's got some charm.

For one thing, it's damned inclusive. You can play pretty much any race presented, and that speaks well of system modularity. For another, although it's set in New York, it feels rust belt to me in a lot of ways (give you one guess why). I enjoyed these books, and it's a game that I'd consider dusting off and running someday, probably with some overhaul to the system.

OK, turning to page 10 of the book: My first choice is what race to play. My choices are: Vampyres, Werewolves, Ghosts, Daemons, Wyghts, Inuits and Animates. Well, I want to do something that I can't do in WoD, which kacks the first four and the last one. I guess I'll go with a Wyght. Always liked them. They're these ugly, stringy-muscled undead creatures. I dig 'em. You'll get a look at one, because the character sheet has some art on it.

OK, my next step is Abilities, which are randomly generated. I get 4d10 for each Ability.

Strength 15
Dexterity 18
Fitness 17
Intellect 20
Will 29
Perception 24
Attractiveness 30
Luck 19

Wow. I'm one hot corpse. I'll apply the Racial Modifiers, which change things a bit:

Strength 45
Dexterity 28
Fitness 27
Intellect 20
Will 29
Perception 34
Attractiveness 15
Luck 19

Much better. I calculate my Survival Points: Luck + Fitness = 46. My Hand-to-Hand damage is 9.

Next step: Edges. Edges are supernatural powers that Kin possess, and you gets them by lowering Max Humanity (which is different than Humanity). Humanity is a big deal in Nightlife. The more human my Wyght is, the less damage he takes from sunlight, silver and fire. But, I have to sacrifice Max Humanity if I want to be good at my Edges.

Every race starts with an Edge or two for free. In my case, it's "an Edge." I get Drain (youth). All Kin have drain; blood, youth, pain, raw flesh. Some Kin don't need to drain, but I have a Diet Restriction - I can only live on the youth of living creatures. My Racial Edges are Necropathy (talking to corpses) Reanimate Dead (exactly what it sounds) and Infection (making more Wyghts). Then there are a bunch of Edges available to all Kin. Hmm.

Looking over the list, I decide to grab the two corpse-related racial Edges, but skip Infection for now. My character loves his life as one of the Kin, but it's harder and he figures it's only going to get harder, so he doesn't want to chance being tempted to Infect (plus, he can do it any time he wants, really; manifesting Edges doesn't cost XP, just Humanity). I also pick up Photogenics (so I can appear on camera if I want) and Nocturnal Vision (seeing in the dark is good).

OK, the Acquisition Costs for those sets me back 28 Max Humanity. I don't feel the need to raise Nocturnal Vision, so it stays at the base equal to my Perception (34). Photogenics I'll raise because it's cheap and because it's not the roll I'd want to fail at. 2 Max Humanity buys it up to 49.

Reanimate Dead...ooh, suck. It's 1/1 for Max Humanity, and it starts at my Will (29). Not bad, but not great. I'll buy it up to 35, I guess. 6 more points. Ouch. Necropathy is a little better cost-wise (1/2) but it starts at my Intellect, which is low. I think I'll leave it for now. My character is new at this, and is better at calling them up than making them talk.

Finally, Drain. It starts at 27, which is my Fitness. I'll throw six more points into it, buying it up to 39. That's 40 Max Humanity spent.

OK, now Skills. I get 20 1d10 rolls, at which point I will add them into Skill ratings (this is the annoying bit about Stellar characters). My rolls:

4,10,3,8,1,1,3,6,8,7,9,7,5,6,5,9,10,9,3,8.

My Skills:

Club 67
Hard Martial Arts 50
Administration 35
Alertness 46
Computer Operation 36
Disguise 32
First Aid 40
Streetwise 37

Connections. I roll a 7, so I get 4 Connections, and one can be important. Cool. I'll take Willard Romero, leader of the Knights of the Living Dead. I love that gang. Also, I'll take:

Jenny Winters, a nurse at Bellvue (she knows my true nature; she's what we call "Crowley")
Tony D, a local dope dealer (he's a dick, but he knows things. He's Crowley, too)
Buzzkill, a Bugwalker and member of the Commune (he was a doctor in life, so I call him when I get weird corpses)

OK. That's all for the numbers, actually. Now we can talk character.

Luke Bailey was attempting to get into med school. It was the summer of 1968, it was hot, and he was frustrated. He was out of work and his resume just wasn't shining. He took a job as a intake clerk at a morgue in Brooklyn (Nightlife assumes NYC).

One night, they brought a corpse in that just looked awful. White, withered, stringy. Luke pulled back the sheet and wondered why the EMTs ran. And then the corpse grabbed him and Drained him dry. He aged 80 years in an instant, and died. The Wyght that Infected him did it by accident. It was badly injured and needed to heal, but it didn't care that it killed him. Luke collapsed to the floor, dying, just about the time that the Wyght's enemies showed up. Dawn was coming, and he was fully healed, so they just blustered a bit and he left - but that left the pursuers to deal with Luke. Fortunately, they were Commune Kin (pro-human), and decided to help him "go to college" (learn about the Kin).

Luke has kept the job at the morgue ever since; it makes a ready source of bodies for him to animate if he needs to. Feeding is tough, but he tries to limit it to animals rather than humans. He's still the intake clerk, but he uses a different name. There are rumors about why he looks like that, but he keeps the lights low and leaves the building when he wants. No one questions him (rumor is, last guy that did got a nasty phone call from the mayor to leave the "Old Man" alone. That was a favor called in from Willard Romero).

Other Kin called him "Doc" or "Hippie". He likes to wear his white lab coat out to Kin functions, but when he's not working he wears torn-up jeans or leathers, and a tie-dye shirt (reds and browns; looks bloodstained). He carries a heavy lead pipe, and he's know to be reluctant to fight, so if he does, he wants to put you down quickly. Luke's very much pro-human, and sometimes wonders if he should be in the Knights of the Living dead (violently pro-human) rather than the Commune (better with diplomacy). After all, that asshole who Infected him is out there somewhere, and while Luke enjoys his unlife, he'd really like to thump that fucker's skull. 

 

Character Creation: Chill 2nd Edition

I'd rather Rax, wouldn't you?

The Game: Chill (2nd Edition)
The publisher: Oh, goodness. Pacesetter, originally. Then Mayfair, which is the version I have and love. Otherworld Creations has the license and were even supposedly going to hire me to work on the new version, but I think that's in the realm of vaporware now.
Degree of familiarity: Lots. This was the first real "chronicle" I ever ran, and it went a good two years, culminating in an end of the world kind of thing. I've run other stories since.
Books required: Just the core, and I might use skills from the Chill Companion. 

 

OK, Chill is a horror RPG - the first one I ever played, and probably the one responsible for my love of horror films - in which you play members of a monster-hunting organization called SAVE. SAVE is never really all that well-defined, and I'd have loved to have seen a sourcebook just on the organization and how it operates, but I wound up writing a lot of that myself. Along with magic and psionic rules. But I'm not using any of my homemade stuff for this.

Of the three options, I'm definitely doing the first, which is making your own character instead of tweaking a pre-gen. Time was I could do this in my sleep.

I want to play a character in contrast to some of my other hunter-like folks, someone who still has a family. This, by the way, requires a CM (Chill Master) who isn't going to kill them off at the drop of a hat, but that's another matter. My character is married and has a wife and a son, and as of the start of the "game" another on the way. He works only six months out of the year, but during those six months he travels to factories all around the world and helps them get online. Rather than playing an engineer, which uses a knowledge base that I really don't have, I think my character's occupation is more human resources-oriented. He helps the managerial staff get their ducks in a row regarding pay scheduling, sick time, and all that stuff that employees ask about.

But while on assignment somewhere in the Rust Belt, he wound up working in a factory that was old and badly out of code. There wasn't something living in the smokestack, something huge and fleshy, like a giant spider (it's a chimenyrue, if you've read GURPS: Creatures of the Night, which is a goddamn awesome book). The thing talked to a foreman and drove him crazy, and he came to work on the first day my guy was there with a shotgun and two handguns, locked the place down and kept the smokestacks going, all to feed the monster.

It ended badly. The creature came out of the smoke and killed its pawn. My character was the only one who got a good look, and he described it to the police...and wound up getting psychiatric care. Finally, he spoke to a shrink who worked for SAVE, and SAVE gave him the choice: Go back to sleep, or join up. His career was the perfect cover, he was well-traveled and mobile, and he had contacts all over the world. He agreed, but he hasn't been able to tell his wife yet. Not about the chimneyrue, not about SAVE. She thinks he can't talk about what happened in that smoky hell, and she's right, but not because he's got PTSD. It's because when that thing turned to face him, it had a human face. That thing used to be a man. And it's not dead.

My character's name is Kelley Travis. His wife's name is Kris (there's a lot of confusion in various bureaucratic systems about who's the wife and who's the husband, because of their names). His son's name is Reggie (Reginald, after her father), and they haven't agreed on a name for the new one yet.

OK, math time. I get 100 Character Insight Points (CIPs) to build Kelley. I start with basic abilities. Each CIP buys men 5 points. Minimum is 10, max is 90 (this is percentage). 50 is about average. I used to advise people to spend between 80 and 85 points on these.

Thinking about him, I know I want him to be in OK physical shape (better since the incident), but not tip-top. He's sharp, though, and personable. And definitely lucky.

Agility 40
Dexterity 55
Luck 60
Perception 60
Personality 55
Stamina 40
Strength 40
Willpower 50

OK, that's not bad. That's 89 points spent on basic abilities, which is perfectly doable.

Moving on, skills. Now, the way skills work is that the base score is the average of 2 or more basic abilities, and then add a bonus based on your skill level (student/teacher/master=15/30/50). One point for Student, 3 for Teacher, 5 for Master. At this point I crack the Chill Companion, which has a better skill list. I'll jot down which ones I want, and then the levels:

English M (free)
Accounting T
Administration T
Charm T
Computer T
Spanish S
French S
Japanese S
Cantonese S
German S
Familiarity (factories) S
Journalism S
Law S
Pistol S
Savoir-Faire S
Stealth S
Trivia S

OK, that puts me up to 112. Gotta watch my total; going over by more than 20 is a bad idea, I've found. But for now, let's move on to Edges and Drawbacks.

Edges are little perks, Drawbacks are just that. I already know I want the Dependents Drawback to represent my family. That gives me 2 points back, because they're in one place (if I had a brother in another city, that would net me another point). Looking over the Edges, I think I need Information Source (Corporate). But other than that, I don't think anything else is really necessary for Kelley.

Now, I know I'll need more Drawbacks, but I want to look at Disciplines of the Art first. These are supernatural techniques that SAVE teaches, and I think that Kelley was giving some instruction in how to protect himself (and others) when he was brought on board. More specifically, he's got the Sphere of Protection Discipline, which protects him and anyone near him from physical attacks as well as Creatures of the Unknown. He just can't do it very long. That costs me one point. That means I'm still at 113, all told.

OK, to balance out, I need 13 points in Drawbacks, or I need to drop some points. Let's look at Drawbacks. I think the chimneyrue is still after Kelley, so that's the Hunted Drawback. Slight hitch - it's not a Chill creature, so I don't know its Evil Way score, meaning I'll have to guess at the level. Knowing what I do about the creature, though, I think it's probably worth 3 CIPs. I'll take Poor Vision (Correctable) - like a lot of desk jockeys, Kelley wears glasses. That's another 1; I need 9 more.

Won't Kill is a no-brainer. Kelley's never killed and, like most people, would have a hard time doing it even if he had to (I played a character with Won't Harm once; that's a pain). That nets me 3.

OK, gotta go to the Companion. Re-reading Psychological Flaw, I think that fits. Kelley was really damaged in that factory, and monsters can use that damage to manipulate him if they find the chink in his mental armor. I'll take 3 levels of that Drawback, meaning that a monster needs a Medium success on a Perception check to exploit it.

I'll take Curiosity, because it's just about required - I think that's what finally got him to join SAVE, rather than go back to his family. And finally, I'll take Flashbacks. When smells smoke, he's back in that factory, listening to that foreman die screaming.

And that's me back to 100 points. My Movement is 33, my Sprinting is 90, my unskilled melee is 20 (not a fighter), my Sense Unknown is 12, and my initiative is 4 + 1d10. I have 20 wound boxes, meaning one good gunshot will kill me, as it should be. I jot down some stuff that Kelley carries, and I'm ready for my first mission!