Character Creation: Orpheus

OK, I know I said I was doing Fireborn today, but then I made this icon over here at the Coraline movie site, and my mind took that image and merged it with "Empty" by Del Amitri, which isn't on Youtube else I'd link it (ETA: here it is), but here are some lyrics:

Don't get so distressed
If the good life won't arrive
You've been reading s.o.s.
When it's just your clock reading 5:05
And why are you so possessed
By the thought that she got free
And why are you figuring who's the best
When just your luck ran out
And she chose me

We do not lie side by side
And mock the thought of you
And i don't take her hand and ask
Is this what he used to do?
'cos i just want to free her from
Your jails of jealous dreams
'cos at least a house when it's empty
Stays clean

I won't pretend
That i was simply swayed
It was a two way thing not a
Three day fling
No secrets kept, no truth betrayed
And here's the house that held
The nightmare that went on
And you're sitting there wishing you'd never been born
With that self-inflicted crown of thorns

We do not lie side by side
And mock the thought of you
And i don't take her hand and ask
Is this what he used to do?
'cos i just want to free her from
Your jails of jealous dreams
'cos at least a house when it's empty
Stays clean

I won't pretend
That i'm the saviour of the innocent and bad
But put two withered old blooms in a couple of rooms
And they'll behave like lunatics
And crave what makes them sad

So here's a card that says
Happy twenty-second birthday and i wish you were dead
And here's a house that held
A bevy of devils and an angel as well
And you want what i've got
When all i've got is guilt
And a room that won't stay still
Filled with pockets full of crumpled up money and
A mantelpiece littered with bills
'cos at least a house when it's empty
Stays clean

Anyway, I like the song because it conjures up images of an empty, oddly dust-less house, and a man walking through it wondering what went wrong. And the image of that man having buttons for eyes - that he's given away his sight and had it replaced with something else, strikes me as appropriate for Orpheus.

So!

The Game: Orpheus
The publisher: White Wolf
Degree of familiarity: Lots! I worked on most of the line, developed two of the books, and ran a long chronicle that I didn't log, so it feels weird and faraway. 
Books required: The core, but if I feel like grabbing a Background from one of the sourcebooks, I shall. 

 
Step One: Character Concept. You know I've never played Orpheus? WW didn't really promote this game; at Dragon*Con...whatever year that was...I was the only one running a game of it. But I enjoyed the chronicle I ran, for all the craziness that surrounded the creation of the game.

Anyway, concept. Well, the concept I have is a ghost, no question. Yeah, I made a ghost character here, but Orpheus is kind of a different animal. I want to make someone who's working for the Orpheus Group, post-mortem. Brayton Smith (people call him "Smitty," and that's better than "Brayton") was an insurance adjuster, not especially happy about it, but putting his business degree to use, at least. He had a girlfriend that he really loved - Emily. Blond, blue eyes, thin, young, smart, funny, etc. And then she fell for another guy, someone slightly older and definitely more...interesting.

Smitty kind of lost it. He went and confronted the guy, and the dude, rather than get angry, calmly put Smitty in his place. It wasn't about Smitty, he said. It was about Emily and what she needed. She felt bad about breaking it off with him, but the relationship wasn't doing her any good. He needed to move on, find someone that he could really work for.

He might have, who knows? But instead, Smitty started doing a drug called pigment. Black heroin. He lost his job inside a month, and six months later wound up wandering through his empty house (he'd sold almost everything to pay for drugs). He laid down that night and died, a combination of malnutrition, drug overdose, and hypothermia (no gas, after all, and this was the middle of winter). He haunted the hell out of the place, and out of Emily, when an Orpheus Group crucible showed up to put him to rest. They managed to bring him out of his post-death haze, instead, and Smitty joined the group. He's terrified of moving on, because he figures he's bound for Hell because of what he did to Emily and her beau (nothing permanent, and they're actually adjusting fine, but it wouldn't be the first time Smitty's inflated his own self-importance). At present, what he's getting out of Orpheus is a sense of purpose, and companionship of his crucible-mates.

So I need to choose a role, Shade, Lament, Nature and Demeanor. Well. Lament is hue, we've nailed that down already. My role isn't important system-wise; "Office Worker" sums it up. Nature...hmm. I think that, by Nature, he's a Bumpkin. He doesn't do theory very well, and he's baked his brain with drugs enough that thinking two steps ahead is hard. His Demeanor is Penitent. He's playing up "look what I did" as a way to seem interesting. That'd change in play, I'm sure.

Now for the hard one: Shade. I don't see Smitty as very subtle. Actually, I think it plays into his simplistic nature to make him a Poltergeist.

So, plug in the numbers from these traits, and on we go! Oh, hey, look at that. Between my Shade and my Nature, my Vitality is 7, but since I'm a hue, I can't go higher than that. And, as a hue, I get to bring out my Stains for free. Whoopee-fricking-do. The Stains system wasn't well thought-out, and we never really used them when I ran it.

Step Two: Select Attributes. Your basic WW thing. 6/4/3, since these guys are mortals. Mostly. Well, I'm going Physical primary, Mental secondary and Social tertiary, and that shouldn't be any surprise.

Physical I make an even 3 across the board. That's not because he was in great shape in life, but because self-image makes you what you are in death. Mental, I throw one into Intelligence and Wits and two into Perception. He noticed that Emily was acting different, but couldn't figure out why. Social, even across the board. He's unremarkable, even in death.

Step Three: Select Abilities. 11/7/4, nothing higher than 3 here, and look at that! No Dodge! How'd that happen! Why, it must've been because the author of this section talked to me and got my brother's rationale for excluding it!

Don't mind me. Moving on. I think we'll go Talents, Skills, and then Knowledges.

Talents: Three into Streetwise, two into Alertness, Awareness and Brawl, one into Athletics and Subterfuge.

Skills: Three into Melee (Orpheus training), two into Stealth, one into Technology and one into Drive.

Knowledges: One into Academics, Bureaucracy, Finance, and Computer. Training from the living days, but he's forgotten most of it.

Step Four: Record Advantages. I get the Helter-Skelter Horror for free. And now Backgrounds...OK, wtf? Two "normal" ones and two Orpheus ones? That's it? Weird. OK, whatever, let's get to it. Actually, since I'm a ghost, there are Backgrounds I can't take. Let's look over the choices, along with the ones in Shades of Gray. OK, I'll take Personal Trainer for Melee and Firearms (another Orpheus op teaching Smitty to be a badass, since that's what Poltergeists do), and the other two dots into Destiny. I can reroll two failed rolls per session. Always a good idea. And, finally, I get three Stains. Yuck.

OK, most of the Stains in the core book suck. They're totally out of place with the game, IMHO. They make ghosts look like...orcs, or something, and reading them, stuff like "Bat's Ears" and "Carapace" doesn't say "ghost" to me. It says "demon", I guess.

Oh, by the way, there was a Stain in the first draft of Orpheus called "Toad Stool". You excreted foul-smelling poo. I'm not half kidding. Fortunately, that one got cut. Wish I still had the files, I'd post it.

Anyway, I like Withered. When he manifests this Stain, Smitty looks dessicated and decayed, but he can spend as much Vitality as he wants and not tip Spectres off. That's kind of useful.

Ah. Now, looking at the Stains in Shadow Games, I'm much more impressed. These feel ghostlike. Most of them, anyway. Since I know I want Smitty to have big, black buttons for eyes, no matter what he does, I'll take Hungry Eyes (his gaze can sap Vitality) and Hypnotic Markings (or make people especially suggestible).

Step Five: Finishing Touches. I already recorded starting Vitality, Willpower and Spite. Now I get 15 freebie points.

Well, I know I want to sink 7 points into buying Congeal, my other Horror. I'll also spend five on Backgrounds, buying Personal Trainer up one (adding Brawl as something to train) and buying Haunt 3 (the aforementioned house). That leaves me 3 points. I'll throw one more into Backgrounds and buy Memorial 1 - folks at the office still pass by Smitty's old cubicle and shake their heads, wondering how he just let himself go like that. And, I'll spend the last 2 to buy Security 1. He can make lockpicks with his hands, but he's gotta know how to use them.

And that's Smitty done and ready to go a-hauntin'!