Character Creation: Mutants & Masterminds

Lemme just duck into this phone booth...

Anyway:

The Game: Mutants and Masterminds 2nd Ed
The Publisher: Green Ronin
Degree of Familiarity: Some. I played a character named "Nobilis" that I really enjoyed a while back (Branden was the GM, but the game fell victim to unreliable cars and schedules), and M&M is about as close to the d20 system as I like to get.
Books Required: Just the M&M book, I think, but I have the True20 book if I need it.

 
I would run this game, I think, if other, non-d20-based games weren't available. I mean, I like M&M. I like its versatility, and I really like the "Under the Hood" bits in the book, because I like transparency in game design. In fact, mind if I segue just a little?

OK. Gaming can be artistic, but most of the time it's just entertainment, which is fine. And game books can be entertaining to read, but they are, first and last, rulebooks, and therefore tools to help you the reader do something fun. They are not necessarily the fun by themselves.

Now, that said, it's perfectly possible to have gaming books that are fun to read and make for good games. But I personally enjoy when the game designer talks to you, explains why certain decisions were made and what it might do if you did it differently. I don't like game designers hiding behind their games and not providing insight into why a game was built the way it was; there's a kind of Ivory Tower elitism that goes with that attitude (not that I'll name names here).

Anyway, enough rambling. Let's do this.

Step One: Hero Concept. Ooh, I've got one. I want to make a magic-using hero named "Grimoire." That's my concept.

OK, guess maybe I should do a little more. My character was a privileged white guy named Kirk Olsen. Olsen lived in the burbs, away from the kind of trouble that one associates with superheroes, and thus only saw their battles on the news. That meant he got a media filter, and to him, supervillains just posed and then got their asses beat, and superheroes just posed and beat ass. The real day to day stuff - trackers searching out lost kids, powerhouses lifting flipped cars out of ditches, speedsters racing across town to serve warrants - wasn't really covered in the press, and so Kirk didn't see it.

He went to college with this kind of sneering attitude towards supers; yeah, they look cool in tights and all, but we're no better off with or without them (he called them "pajama police"). He majored in English but then started getting into folklore a little more, and took an elective class in Freemasonry and other mystical traditions (remember, superhero world). While studying, he realized a textbook in his library that hadn't been checked out in 50 years had a false back, and inside, he found a rolled up message from a Rosicrucian mystic. It was a series of incantations designed to awaken mystical potential in the reader. He couldn't read it (his Latin wasn't great), so he showed it to a professor.

The professor read it and gained some pretty insidious mental powers. The dude turned around and used those powers to take over the department, bang a lot of hot young coeds by suppressing their ability to say "no," make a lot of money and generally live high on the hog.

Kirk was appalled. This was a man from his life, his kind of life, a man who was comfortable and educated and all of that, and he was using this incredible power to get rich and rape. And Kirk realized then that the idiots you see on the TV are just the ones that make for good press. The real villains are the ones that don't advertise.

And that means that the real heroes are the ones that don't stick around for the credit.

Kirk broke into the professor's house while he was away at a sorority house (think Love Potion No. 9, which gets creepier every time I see it) and found the scroll. He stumbled through it as best he could, but even with his shaky Latin, it worked. Kirk Olsen waited for that professor to return home and confronted him, and let him know that he was onto the game. They found each other to a standstill, and Olsen was forced to flee so that the Professor didn't mind-fuck him.

OK, that's a good start for concept. On to...

Step Two: Check with Your Gamemaster. Moving along.

Step Three: Power Level. Let's assume the default, 10th level. I get 150 points to build Grimoire.

Step Four: Basic Abilities. They all start at 10, and then I pay 1 point for every increment above that. Obviously I want high Intelligence and Wisdom. Let's leave Strength and Dexterity at 10, buy Constitution up to 14 (4 points), buy Int and Wisdom up to 18 (20 points altogether) and buy Charisma up to 12 (22 points).

I need to buy attack/defense bonus. I'll blow 8 points here and put +4 in each of them, why not. Starting to feel like Kirk is spending time and magic in combat training, even though he's not necessarily strong or fast on his own.

And, saves. These are one for one. I'll pump two points into each (8 points, for a total of 38 spent) and then four more into Will (42 points spent).

Step Five: Skills. One power point buys me four ranks in a skill. Looking at the list, I take:

Bluff 4
Climb 3
Computers 5
Concentration 8
Gather Information 5
Intimidate 5
Investigate 4
Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 8
Language (Latin) 1
Notice 5
Search 5
Sense Motive 5
Stealth 6

That's 16 points spent on Skills, for 58 total.

Step Six: Feats. One point per feat rank. (Feet rank? Eww.)

I'll take Distract; I see Grimoire as being able to use small, subtle bits of magic to distract mooks. I'll buy the 2-point version so it works with Bluff or Intimidate. I'll take Master Plan; Grimoire's definitely a leader-type. I'll take Quick Change (if I were running the game, it'd be free) so I can magically become Grimoire in an instant! And I'll take Ritualist, because performing magical rituals is what I do, yo.

Step Seven: Powers. Aw, yeah. Well, here I need to figure out how "magic" works in M&M, so just a moment. OK, so taking "magic" as a power means basically that I have a bunch of powers under that umbrella, that have the "magic" descriptor on them and I can acquire new powers/spells as power feats. Hmm. This requires thinking about how magic works for Grimoire.

Well, I like the notion of him using magic words and gestures to make his spells. But I also like the idea that he has a few tricks that are intrinsic, the result of his regimen of magical study and practice. I think I'd better knock out the Magic first, though, as it's liable to eat a lot of points. I'll take 15 ranks of Magic (30 points). For my free effect, I'll take Obscure - Grimoire likes to move invisibly (since I'd need Obscure to be 2 points per rank, his Obscure affects sight and hearing). And then I need some more Magic powers. If the powers I choose to be Alternates cost rank x2, I can take them up to 15, but any given power can't cost more than 30. Oy. OK.

Oh, wait. If I'm reading this right, every Alternate power only costs me one point. Holy cats. OK, so, I take:

Insubstantial (rank 4, since that's as high as it goes, and I'll put in for 9 extra subjects and one increment of range, meaning I can make 9 people incorporeal if they're within 10 feet).

Invisibility (rank 3, which is 24 points)

Morph (humanoids only, rank 15)

Nullify (magic only, rank 15)

Snare (with the Regenerating Extra, rank 10)

Suffocate (rank 10, plus 5 levels of Extended Reach means I've got a 50' range)

Transform (people into this weird, smoky-glass like material - costs 4 points per level because I want the Continuous extra. Blah. I'll take Sense-Dependent; the target has to hear the incantation for it to work. 10 ranks)

OK, good grief. Alternate Power is nuts. Of course, it does require that I switch between powers, but eh. Let's see: 37 on magic. That takes me to 100 points even.

Like I said, though, I want some powers that I've practiced and made more or less a permanent part of me. I'll take Teleport, and make it a Portal, meaning it costs 4 points per rank. I'll add the Easy Extra, too, so I'm not disoriented on arrival (5 points per level). I want rank 6, so I can teleport 20 miles away. That's 30 points, for fuck's sake. I'll bust it down to a full action to make the portal, that makes it 2 points per level, or 12 points. Much better.

I'll take Blast; seems like I should have one. 2 points per level, and I'll dump 20 points into it for a level 10 Blast. That takes me to 122. Going with my theme of being all secretive and stuff, I'll take Communication. Two ranks is fine for a range of 100 feet. I apply the Selective Feat (I talk to who I want) and Subtle x 2 (my whispers can't even be detected unless I want them to be), and the Area Extra. That costs me 7 points. 129 total.

I think that's good for Powers. I think I'll do the rest of chargen, and then spend my other, what, 21 points.

Step Seven: Complications and Drawbacks. This is mostly role-playing concerns, but there are some mechanical things in this section. First off, Name. Well, we know that. His name is Kirk Olsen, known in crimefighting circles as Grimoire.

His appearance. Well, as Kirk, he's thin, short, and not terribly imposing. He used to be kind of arrogant and overbearing, but since his transformation, he's gotten a new sense of righteousness and humility and that's carried over some. Black hair, blue eyes, favors jeans and casual clothes.

In costume, he wears a black suit, button-down shirt, and a blue tie with gold emblems on it. He wears a black mask and a blue fedora, and black driving gloves. He likes being recognizable as a superhero, but he detests the spandex-and-cape look.

I've been through his origin already. I don't think he has a group allegiance, but morally he's very much professed to stopping the bad guys who keep things on the low. Superheroes go after the big, flashy, bank-robbing idiots all the time...who goes after the perverts? The ones that don't want their pictures in the paper? The ones that traffic in arcane secrets? Grimoire does.

Now, as far as Complications go, he's already got one: The Professor. This guy is his nemesis, an enemy with a small set of powers but a good grasp on using them. Whereas Grimoire used his magic to bring in outside influence (letting him create the snares and change flesh to glass and all), the Professor turned magic on minds and souls.

Finally, I take a Power Loss Drawback - Grimoire loses access to his Magic and all associated powers if he can't gesture or speak. That's worth 3 points, apparently.

Step Eight: Check Your Math. I will. Hang on. See, already finding mistakes.

Abilities: 44
Skills: 16
Feats: 5
Powers: 76
Drawbacks: -3

I'm at 138, giving me 12 points to play with. I'll put 8 into Skills and jack them up as follows:

Bluff 10
Climb 3
Computers 5
Concentration 10
Gather Information 10
Intimidate 10
Investigate 4
Knowledge (Arcane Lore) 15
Language (Latin) 1
Notice 10
Search 5
Sense Motive 5
Stealth 8

That leaves me four more points. I'll pump up my attack and defense mods by 2 more each, so I can hit more betterer.

And that's me at 150 points!

Character Creation: Mouse Guard

SQUEAK.

The Game: Mouse Guard
The Publisher: Archaia Studios Press
Degree of Familiarity: None with this game specifically. I played Burning Empires at Origins a few years back.
Books Required: Just the core.

 
The idea here is that you play a mouse. Yep. The mouse is part of the Mouse Guard, which protects mice from larger predators. There's definitely a "you are the noble knight" vibe that I like, and I love the tag on the back: "It's not what you fight, it's what you fight for." I can groove on that.

The game is based on a comic that I'll have to check out at some point. But I haven't yet, so my character isn't going to be real derivative of those in the comic, clearly.

Concept: I want to make a mouse who's not a tenderpaw, but isn't real experience under the Guard. I also want him to have a kind of a weird vibe to him, something that isn't normal but isn't really under his control.

Guard Rank: He's a guardmouse. He's been around too long to be a tenderpaw, but he's not ready to be a patrol leader yet.

Mouse Age and Ability: I'll say 25 (apparently mice in this game age like people, or at maybe we're measuring months or something). Anyway, that means I'm an adult mouse. That gives me a Will of 2 and Health of 5.

Mouse Nature: I start with Nature 3, and then I answer three questions:

Do you save for winter even if it means going without something now? Or do you use what you have when you need it? I see my mouse as being frugal and careful, a good forager. So, yes to the first one. That means my Nature increases to 4, but I can't take the Generous or Bold Traits.

When confronted, do you stand your ground and fight or try to run and hide? I want my mouse to fight by arranging situations to his advantage, so I'll say I run and hide. That increases my Nature to 5, but I decrease my Fighter trait by 1 (if I take it).

Do you fear owls, weasels and wolves? Hell, yes. They want to eat me. My Nature goes to 6, but I can't take Fearless.

Where Were You Born? There are eight cities in the Territories, so 'scuse me while I look them over again. OK, I like several of them, but Sprucetuck is cool. It's a mouse village in a big old spruce tree, and they harvest fruits and saps to make medicine and so forth. Sounds like a fun place to be from. That gives me the Loremouse or Scientist Skills, and the Inquisitive or Rational traits. Suits me. I'll take Loremouse and Inquisitive.

Life Experience: I get a Skill I'm naturally good at. I'll take Harvester. I get to pick what my parents were good at. Hmm. I'll say that my folks were Brewers. I pick how I convince people I'm right; I take Persuader.

When I came to Lockhaven to join the Guard, he was placed with a senior mouse to help out, learn a trade. I think he arrived during a drought, and had to help with foraging. He apprenticed with a mouse named Ainsley, known as a skilled and persistent forager. So I'll give him Harvester (which is another check on that Skill).

My mentor in the Guard didn't stress fighting (I think he, too, was from Sprucetuck). He stressed knowing your way around rather than fighting your way out, so I'll take Pathfinder.

Now, I need to think of my experiences in the guard and what Skills it's given me. I get six checks as a guardmouse. I take Hunter 2, Pathfinder, Scout 2 and Survivalist.

My specialty is Scout. I've got a little ninja-mouse. Anyway, now I add all my Skills and add 1 to each, and I come up with:
Hunter 3
Pathfinder 3
Scout 4
Survivalist 2
Brewer 2
Persuader 2
Harvester 3

All right, moving on, what am I knowledgeable about? This gives me checks in wises. I have 2 checks, being a guardmouse.

Well, I figure my mouse knows predators. That's why he fears them. I take Predator-wise. Also, since he made his bones, as it were, foraging during a drought, I'll take Drought-wise. I have 2 in each of those.

Guard Resources: Guard pay, and other stuff. I start with 2 and answer more questions:

In winter, do you still practice a trade like weaving, smithing or pottery for the Guard? I'll say yes; winter's a good time for foraging, or even brewing. My Resources goes up to 3.

Are your parents smiths, politicians, merchants or apiarists? Nope, they were brewers. No change.

Do you like to buy gifts for yourself and your friends? No, I see this guy being frugal. No change.

Are you thrifty? Yes. My Resources goes up to 4, but I can't take the Generous trait.

Have you ever been in debt? Or are you bad with money? Kind of redundant, no? Nope. No change.

Do you always pack carefully for a journey, ensuring you have everything you need? Hell, yes. A good scout is one that comes back. My Resources goes up to 5, but I can't take Bold or Fiery.

Guard Circles: Again, I start with 2, and again I answer questions.

Is your mouse gregarious? Does he have lots of friends? Does he make friends easily? I have a hard time playing taciturn characters. Can't imagine why. I'll say yes, which means I go up to Circles 3. I can't buy Bitter or Jaded.

Do you have strong ties to the Guard? Not especially. No change.

Has your character accomplished some great task in the Guard? Does he already have a reputation? Nah. He's too much a ninja-mouse. He's overlooked much of the time. No change.

Does your character have powerful enemies in the territories? I'll say yes. He pissed off the daughter of a powerful family once. My Circles falls to 2.

Has your character been convicted of a crime? Nope. No change.

Is your character a loner, tough and cool? No. Loner characters are annoying. No change. My Circles is 2.

Mouse Traits: A lot like Skills, really. I pick one I was born with, noting that there are a bunch I can't take. I already have Inquisitive from my hometown, though I could take it again. But I'll take Nocturnal. It's not safe at night (owls! OMG!) but that's the best time to scout. I'm not a tenderpaw so I don't get one from my folks, and I'm not a guard captain so I don't get the "life on the road" trait.

Name: The book says that mice in the Territories have Old English-sounding names. I can dig it. My mouse will be named Siddel, which, according to the extensive Googling I did, means "from the wide valley."

Fur Color: I'll say black. Black mice look cool. Plus it gives him a kind of mysterious air, that I may or may not play to.

Parents: Siddel's mother was a black mouse, too. Dad was a more traditional nut brown. Dad's name is Myles, while Mom's is Siobahn.

Senior Artisan: When Siddel came to Lockhaven to join the Guard, he was placed with a senior mouse to help out, learn a trade. I think he arrived during a drought, and had to help with foraging. He apprenticed with a mouse named Ainsley, known as a skilled and persistent forager.

Mentor: Siddel's mentor in the Guard was an old, light-gray-almost-white mouse named Laird. He taught Siddel that if you stay still and patient, and choose a hiding spot well, you can get away from almost any predator.

Friend: Siddel, on his way from Sprucetuck to Lockhaven, met a mouse named Richard. Richard is a wanderer, not part of the Guard, but skilled enough to be. Siddel looks up to Richard, and though they don't see each other much, they've both made vows to help each other out when they can.

Enemy: While foraging, Siddel saw another mouse, a young tenderpaw named Blythe, munching on food that she should have been taking back to Lockhaven, and ratted her out. Blythe took it personally (she got reprimanded, but not seriously) - she grew up rich in Copperwood, and her folks have some influence. They occasionally spread nasty rumors about "that black mouse from Sprucewood, the one that sneaks out at night."

Cloak Color: Laird made Siddel a deep red cloak with black trim. He says that's because deep red is hardest to see at night, harder even than black.

First Mission: Would require a GM, so this doesn't apply.

Belief: This is how Siddel views his role in the Guard, a kind of ethical statement. Siddel's Belief is, "A dead guardmouse is no good to anyone." Siddel is a survivor, and a careful planner. He's fine with violence, but not stupid fighting. And he never, ever forgets that we're mice, and we break easy.

Goal: Doesn't apply, since you write this upon learning about the mission.

Instinct: Siddel's instinct is to hide, watch and wait. But for all that, his instinct is based on his inquisitive nature, not cowardice. So the Instinct statement is: "Always hide when the trouble starts." Note that this doesn't imply cowering, just hiding. No shame in that, certainly not for a mouse.

Gear: Siddel carries a hook and line (for climbing, not fishing) and perhaps a little flask of something medicinal. Beyond that, he travels light.

I see Siddel as having a lot of weird rumors about him. Kind of like Billy in Predator, except he really doesn't encourage them. He's just a black mouse who's good at scouting and hiding, and there's nothing really mysterious about it. Not yet, anyway. 

Character Creation: Rippers

Here's the thing about Savage Worlds setting: There's not really any focus on theme. It's basically action-movie gaming, but there's no irony to it, no deeper implications. I'm not saying that to complain, mind, because I really like the SW settings I've read, Necessary Evil especially. It's just odd to me because I'm used to World of Darkness games, which pride themselves on those deeper thematic components (whether or not they work is up to the reader).

That said, I've got a game setting in mind that I think SW would be perfect for, that I'd actually consider licensing the system to use if I could put the money together to publish. And that's precisely because the system does what it does so well.

But for now, I just finished reading Rippers. It's an interesting setting; Victorian monster-hunting, which by itself seems pretty straightforward, but the founders of the organization you're working for were John Dee, now Jack the Ripper (I know, right?) and Abraham Van Helsing. Reading the book makes me think of League of Extraordinary Gentlemen or Anno Dracula; everybody shows up, at least as a mention. Running it would take some work not to drift whole-hog into pulp, but it would be a fun game to play, I think.

So let's rock!

The Game: Rippers
The Publisher: Pinnacle Entertainment Group
Degree of Familiarity: None with this game, some with Savage Worlds.
Books Required: The Savage Worlds Explorer's Edition and the Rippers book.

 
Concept comes first. Let's see. I've made a couple of Savage Worlds characters. One was a brick-like pirate, one was a sentient Twinkie (I'm running Low Life at Arisia, by the way, largely to make Wendy happy). Haven't really made a brainiac yet; my 50 Fathoms character was close, though.

Since we're in Victorian England, and since we're drawing from all the great inspirations from the lit set in that time (and from that time, of course), maybe I want to make a mad scientist? No, I think rather I want to make a gadgeteer. Science is great, but practical application is better when you're fighting monsters. I take as inspiration Leonardo da Vinci as presented in Assassin's Creed II and Dr. Cockroach from Monsters vs. Aliens (complete with the habit of breaking into the villain laugh when tinkering).

Some backstory: Emil Stahl grew up in Brazil. His family business was coffee imports, and his father's plantation was successful and profitable. His dad, in fact, was a force behind the 1889 overthrow of the emperor Dom Pedro, and although Emil is German by ancestry, he considers himself a citizen of the United States of Brazil.

Emil always had a knack for machines, and was always trying to get Dad to let him try out his machines in the plantation. Machines to pick, to sort, and even plant coffee, but he found that peripheral to his agricultural devices he was always coming up with...weirder stuff. A coffee bean could be as lethal as a bullet if propelled at the right speed in the right direction (found that one out by accident; poor Paulo). A skiff meant to carry sacks of beans across the water to a ship in order to save time traveling along the coast worked just fine, but the interesting thing was how it got a burst of speed whenever it sucked a fish up into the engine.

In 1892, Emil traveled to England in order to assist his father in some export concerns. There, fascinated by the city of London, he went walking and wound up in Whitechapel. Hearing of the Ripper murders for the first time, he let a group of prostitutes get him drunk and tell him stories all night (and take his money, but money's not his major concern). He woke up tied to a bed, underneath one of them, which would have been all right...but then out came the fangs.

Emil, terrified, did what he did best - improvised. He reached into a hole in the mattress, pulled out a loose spring, loaded it with a button off his shirt and fired it into her eye. It knocked her backwards enough to give him time to reload, and he aimed another button for a lamp. The room caught fire, the vampire fled, and Emil, now tied to a bed in a burning room, thought, "Didn't think that through all the way."

Fortunately, the Rippers were on the vampires trail and saved him. And they knew a gadgeteer in the making when they saw one. Also, Emil can always hook them up with good coffee.

Step One: Traits. I start with a d4 across the board and five more points, which is fine. I think, though, that I want to jack Smarts to d8. I'll leave Strength at a d4 for now, but I would like to raise that at some point, maybe. I don't see Emil as being especially weak.

15 points to buy up skills. I know I want Weird Science, first off. I'll take Driving, Gambling, Guts, Investigation, Shooting, Notice, Survival, Repair. Repair and Weird Science I'll put at d8, Shooting at d6, the rest at d4.

Languages. I get half my Smarts die in languages, which means I speak four. I'll take English, German, Portuguese and Spanish.

Step Two: Special Abilities. Hindrances! Well, I know I want Over-Sensitive (Major). Emil is jittery as all hell. He's not a coward, just excitable and over-caffeinated. Also, I want an Addiction to caffeine...and there's no addiction Hindrance. Weird. Well, we'll call it minor and we'll say that if he's gone 24 hours without a fix, he takes a -1 penalty to Smarts or Spirit-based rolls, because that's what happens when us coffee-junkies don't get a fix. I can take one more Minor Hindrance. Finally, I'll take Loyal. Emil isn't good at triage, and if someone's still alive, they're worth going back for.

Now I have four points. I get one free Edge, so I take Arcane Background (Weird Science). I'm OK with my Skills where they are, but I think I want to burn two points and raise the Strength to d6. Erm. Let's check the other Edges. OK, I want Attractive; I see Emil as tan, well-built, and just plain pretty. I also want him to have some money...actually, let's take Noble. I get the effects of the Rich Edge, but it puts on me the onus of being responsible for something (in this case, the family business). That lets me travel, sure, but if I fuck up, our plantation will die and go out of business. Then no more free coffee.

OK, my Charisma is +4 because I'm cute and rich, my Pace is 6", my Parry is 2, my Toughness is 5, and my Reason (new stat for Rippers, basically a measure of sanity and resolve) is -1, because I'm Over-Sensitive.

10 points now to buy Weird Science powers from a very truncated list. I'll take bolt, and call that my slug-thrower (like a gun, but doesn't make a boom and works mechanically rather than chemically). I'll put 3 points into extra bolts, so it costs me four, but I can shoot four targets for 2d6 damage.

You know, this doesn't make a lot of sense. This gives me 10 Power Points, but then says I can build one device. The other Backgrounds talk about taking three powers or whatever - but isn't that what the Power Points are for? Weird. I don't need a list of powers, thanks, I can make the powers I want fit into my concept. I've got six points left to buy Weird Science-y things.

Well, I'll make it easy on myself and take Smite. Emil developed a way to convert organic material into kinetic energy (he's never managed to get it to work on a vehicle large enough to carry much, and never for long periods of time), so that allows him to feed some plant matter, a dead mouse, whatever, into the device and get a bigger burst of energy. That'll give me the Smite and Speed powers. That leaves me two points. I'll take Detect Arcana. This is a device that Emil's been working with only since joining the Rippers, but it's basically an undead-detector. It finds muscle tone; vampires don't have it because they're dead. Not foolproof, but not a bad start.

I start with Status 10 because of my Noble Edge, and that puts me done. Oh, I could buy possessions, but I hate that phase of chargen. Besides which, there's a babby that needs my attention. 

Character Creation: CthulhuTech

All right, enough of this emo bullshit.

Actually, Heather asked me today if I always get depressed on holidays. She said that I did; I really didn't remember, but Mom says I do, too. How odd. I wonder what the source of that is?

Anyway, I'm feeling better now (like, right now, this moment, though I make no assumptions about later) and today we're going to Miss Molly's Tea Room for brunch (the scones alone are worth the trip). So I'd like to make a character and go have some breakfast.

The Game: CthulhuTech
The Publisher: Wildfire LLC.
Degree of Familiarity: None. I read it a couple weeks back whilst getting my tires fixed.
Books Required: Just the core.

 
It's an interesting premise, to be sure. The Stars Are Right, the Old Ones have woken up, but it's also the Future and we've got crazy arcane technology that lets us defy gravity and use mecha as weapons. Some of these mecha have monsters in them. Some folks bond with monsters, a la Guyver. And meanwhile, cults are trying to wipe out/corrupt humanity. It's all pretty bleak.

I have no idea how the game would play. System looks straightforward enough, at a glance, but I dunno. Let's try it out.

Step One: Concept. First off, I choose an allegiance. If I want to play a Tager, for instance (which are the Guyver things) I pretty much have to work for the Eldritch Society. And actually, I've got an idea.

My character was the son of one of the original, would-be Tagers. The Eldritch Society found these fragments that allowed the Rite of Symbiosis, but of the six people that underwent the rite, only two lived. One of the ones that didn't was my character's father. When he died, it wasn't like he was immediately swallowed by the void. The symbiont surrounded him, but just didn't bond. My character's father lived a few days, but never really talked about his experience. His wife (my character's mother) found him dead three days later, sitting in his favorite chair, staring out the window into the snow. She was three weeks pregnant at that point.

Now, 20 years later, my character (Desmond Marsh) felt an irresistible pull toward the Society. He wanted to do his part to fight the alien menaces, but he had no desire to jump into a big suit and duke it out on the battlefield. He wanted to find the soft heart of these things and rip it out, and if that means he has to become one, he'll do that. His father was willing. So is Desmond.

Well, that covers allegiance, profession (Tager), race (human) and name. I need a Virtue and a Flaw. Virtue is my character's primary "good" quality, from a personality standpoint. I think Desmond is Patient. He's waited 20 years to take the fight to the Dhohanoids, he can wait a little longer. His Flaw is Vengeful. Yes, he can wait, but if he waits, his enemies suffer for it because he has more time to plan what he wants to do to them.

Step Two: Attributes. I get 35 points to divvy up among 7 Attributes. Five is human average, so I could split my points evenly and do average 'cross the board. I appreciate systems that let me do that, but I'm not gonna.

OK, I haven't made a jumpy/flippy character in a while, so let's put 3 points into Strength, 8 into Agility, four into Presence and Perception and six into Tenacity and Intellect. Desmond is thin and not especially strong, but he's fast and clever.

Step Three: Skills, Specializations and Qualities. Your skill level determines the number of dice you roll. I get 20 points for Skills, and buying one at, say, Adept would cost me 3 points ('cause I get 3 dice!). I get Expert in my Native Language for free, and Literacy and Regional Knowledge at Novice for free.

The book recommends I take Athletics, Dodge, Fighting, Marksman and Occult. I probably would have done that, yeah. I can't go higher than Adept, though I can Specialize a bit, which I will.

Athletics 2
Dodge 2
Fighting 2
Marksman 2 (specialization: Tager)
Occult 2 (specialization: Eldritch Society)
Education 2
Observation 2
Stealth 3
Surveillance 2

I get Qualities and Drawbacks, but I can only take up to 10 points in Drawbacks and I have to take a couple of required Qualities. I have to take Tager (4 points), Duty (3 points) and Fanatical (2-3 points). And, looking at the Tager Quality, I see that my Tenacity has to be 7 or better. Balls. Actually, that's not horrible, it just means I'll have to use freebies to bump it up one, which I was considering doing anyway. OK, mental note for later.

So I take Tager (4 points), Duty (3 points back) and Fanatical (3 points back; Desmond seethes with quiet obsession). I can take another 4 points in Drawbacks, so I shall. I'll take Mean; Desmond, as mentioned, has a cruel streak. He's not proud of it, but there it is. Also, I'll take Hunter. The Esoteric Order of Dagon feels that the Marsh family is special in some way, and they've got it in their heads that Desmond was conceived after his father's failed Symbiosis. They're wrong, of course. His mother told him so.

That gives me six points to play with. I'll spend three and bump Marksman, Observation and Fighting to 3. I'll spend one on Double-Jointed, because the notion of a squirmy, double-jointed Tager is fun. And I'll burn my last two points on the Innovative Quality, which gives me extra Drama Points to spend if I use Skills in a new and interesting way.

Step Four: Secondary Attributes. This is the derived traits section, and again it's before freebies. WTF, guys? I'll come back to this.

Step Five: Outfitting the Character. Put another way, go choose your Tager. Oh, I get a sidearm, too, but eh. I choose the Shadow. It's a stealth combat monster, but check out what I get.

All Tagers get Attribute boosts. In my case, my Agility, Perception and Tenacity go up by one, and then they go up again when I shift into Tager-form. I can climb up walls like a bug (rule!). All jumping distances are tripled for me, and I can survive without air for short periods of time.

My particular symbiont is all stealthy and stuff. It has thorns that I use for stabbing, or fire needle-pods at enemies. Also, once per day I can "multiport", teleporting around a single target and beating on it with my thorns.

Oh, and the thorns are poisonous. Rule.

Step Six: Cheats. Well, I get six, and I have to burn three to bump Tenacity up to seven. I think I'll put two more into Skills, and buy Intimidate and Communications at Novice. Something about this guy just suggests he'd be good at mucking about with radios and the like. That leaves me one point. I'll take the Peripheral Vision Quality, just to make me more observant.

And now I do derived traits. I get 2 actions (3 in Tager-form). I can full-out run at 11 mph, or run cautious-like at 27 yards/turn. My Orgone, which is magic energy, is 12, but I only have access to six because my Tager eats half. My Reflex is six (8 in Tager-form). My Vitality is 10 (12 in Tager-form).

Step Seven: Answer a bunch of questions. Actually, the step is called "making it real," but hey. It's presented in question form.

• How old is he? Desmond is 19. He was born in 2066, some months after the incident with the first Tagers.
  
• What does he look like? Desmond is a young-faced man, tall like his dad, skinny like his mother. Dark complexion, green eyes, brown hair. No tats or other distinguishing marks. Desmond likes to stay nondescript.
  
• What does he act like? Desmond has a mean streak, and he takes pains to aim it at monsters, not his comrades. Folks don't like to play the dozens with him, though; it's not that he's good at it, he just goes for blood and he's not above pointing out who people have lost in battle as a way to "win." In battle, he's all business, and he doesn't talk unless he absolutely has to.
  
• What does he want out of life? He wants the monsters dead. He thinks. Honestly he's got very little concept of what the world would be like without the war. He loves his mother and would like to spend more time with her, but he's never really developed his people skills enough to consider life outside the front lines.
  
• Why does he do what he does? If you asked him, he'd say something about preservation of the human race. Really, he latched onto the idea that he was avenging his father early on, and he runs with that. Which would make a plotline about his family lineage and whether or not Dad really did impregnate Mom post-symbiosis fun.
  
• What's his family like? Dad's dead, obviously. Mom never really got over that, and she's terrified that Desmond is going to lose it in battle and join the other side (not that she's ever said that to him). She was involved enough in the Eldritch Society that Desmond becoming a Tager didn't break her, but it sure bent her. Desmond has no other family but Mom.
  
• What are his friends like? His closest companions would probably be other Tagers (other PCs). Desmond doesn't make friends easily.
  
• What was growing up like? Desmond and his mother were taken care of by the Society, so he didn't know the "scrounging for food" thing that others did. By the same token, he didn't get the same formative experiences that other kids did; the notion of "secrecy" and "preservation of mankind" was beaten into him from an early age. Other kids get a lecture if they go snooping in adults' "special" books. Desmond ran the risk of unleashing Dagon. Makes for a screwed-up kid.
  
• What's his adult life been like so far? Once the symbiont bonded with him, he finally felt like he had a friend. The symbiont was quiet, smooth and patient, like him. He began wondering what this creature's life might have been like, and whether it missed its home dimension. He gets no anger from it, though, just...patience.
  
• If the world were a different place...Desmond has no idea. The Mythos are too deep in him to imagine it otherwise. Honestly, if he were growing up in a different, less crazy, world, he might someday be the sort of person that neighbors describe as "always such a quiet young man."

 

Character Creation: Those Darn Ninja

If you don't get the reference, it's from The Tick (comic; sadly they never adapted this storyline for the cartoon). "Those darn ninja. They're wacky."

Anyway, the reason for that reference is that I'm doing a Feng Shui character. I'm on my third cup of coffee tonight, I'm still a little tired, but I don't have to get up tomorrow morning because I'm on Thanksgiving break! Yay! Five days off!

I do so enjoy being on an academic schedule.

More to say? Not especially. Suffice to say that it's been an extremely emotional week, even though it's only Tuesday. More details later if I feel like burdening you with them.

The Game: Feng Shui
The Publisher: Atlas Games
Degree of Familiarity: None, beyond reading it.
Books Required: Just the core.

Wouldn't it be cool if that "shout at your opponents and make them fall down" shit really worked?

Anyway, this is a game of Hong Kong action. Heavy magic, lots of kung-fu combat, Jet Li, John Woo, Jackie Chan, Chow Yun Fat. It's a genre of movie I enjoy, though I'm not as familiar with it as I'd like to be. I think playing this game would be lots of fun with the right crowd, though as I'm typing this I'm trying to remember the system and failing (probably because, as usual, I get to that portion of the book and all my eyes see is "system system system" because I don't grok systems by reading them).

Oh, right, this is the system when you roll two d10s and subtract one from the other. Weird. No idea how this would work in play. Anyone got some experience?

So, the setting assumes this big ol' war between Dark and Light, with both trying to capture mystical sites of power. There's some time travel going on, too, and there are several different "junctures" through which a character might travel. Character creation is dirt simple; you pretty much grab an archetype and modify it. Step One, indeed, is Pick a Type.

Well, several of them are appealing, really. Magic Cop could be fun; take a kind of Hellblazer sort of dude and switch up the genre a little. Karate Cop is fun and traditional. Gambler appeals because I like the artwork. Ghost appeals because playing the supernatural creature is fun.

A brief aside, here: I find that when I make characters in a group, I like to try and hook my character together with someone else's. I like having a backstory that either flips me right into the group, or at least into the setting, so as to give the GM and the other players an easy reason to have my along. None of this "I sit alone in my house instead of going out to join the other PCs" shit (remind me to tell you about that barrel of fun sometime).

Now, that approach does make ghosts and other supernatural critters harder to play, here. So let's consider the source material and some of the other characters I've made (of which there are a lot, and I'm finding it hard to avoid repeating myself). I really do enjoy cop roles, but I don't especially enjoy the maverick cop who just fucks off and does his own thing. Honestly, my favorite movie cop might be Nicholas Angel, who only resorts to action-movie violence when it becomes clear that the situation has gone so far past surreal that it's not even recognizable anymore. Have I made a lot of cop characters? Really, I think just this one. Well, plus one FBI agent. OK, so I haven't overdone that schtick. I'll do Karate Cop as my Type.

I take as my inspiration Ed Greene from Law and Order. Ed was a good cop, much more by-the-book than his later partner (Fontana), though he did have a little gambling problem which eventually fucked him. But he was fully capable of throwing a beat-down when necessary, and seemed a generally moral person. Take that kind of attitude, mix in some kung fu, and I think we should have something.

Next step: The Melodramatic Hook. Our hero is a cop, and I don't feel like playing a cop with a dark secret. Instead, I'll make his hook be public knowledge - he once failed to prevent an assassination and he's torn with shame and guilt about it. He threw himself in front of the target (some important statesman), but was a second too late and the bullet found its mark. The assassin is dead, cut down by a hail of gunfire from other cops, but that didn't save the statesman. In the aftermath, his department told him it was all right, the effort had been good, and so on, but his feeling is that effort is nothing without the purity of focus to make it turn out right.

OK, now, I tweak numbers. I start with Body 5, Chi 0, Mind 5, and Reflexes 5. Those are primary attributes. I get to add 3 to one and 2 to another. Let's see what they mean.

Well, this is easy. 5 is average, except for Chi, where average is 0. I'll add three to Body and two to Mind; he's above average there, but his Reflexes aren't anything special, which might be why he jumped a little late.

My secondary attributes start equal to their linked primary attribute, and I get to add 2 to one of them and 1 to another. I'll add 2 to Agility, making me a better shot, and 1 to Fortune, so I get some chance to hedge my bets.

Now, Skills. I get Driving, Guns, Martial Arts and Police, and I get six Skill points to add in. I see this character as knowing police procedures pretty well, but also being decent at dealing with criminals on their own terms. I take Detective, Intrusion and Leadership all at +2.

I don't get any Schticks, dammit. Well, that's not true. I can deliver a stirring speech that can get NPCs on my side, which isn't nothing. I also get two weapons. I'll take a Colt 1911A because I'm a sucker for the classics, and a SPAS-12 because they're fun to use in Left 4 Dead 2.

I note my Wealth as "working stiff."

And, some final notes. Banning Gully (look, "Banning" is a family name, just call him "Gull" like everyone else) got a job with the NYPD right out of college. It was that or boxing professionally, and he knew how crooked the boxing world was - too bent for him. He made detective surprisingly quickly, demonstrating a real knack for working on the streets and getting career scum to be straight with him. He also could defend himself; his fighting style uses a lot of downward strikes, axe kick, and the like, capitalizing on his heavy arms and legs.

He's not jumpy/flippy, which might be why he didn't take a bullet for a visiting Congressman. He tried, of course, but jumped late, or short, and the guy died. Everyone on the force was cool about it, but he never quite shook the feeling that he failed - by not jumping sooner, by not spotting and shooting the guy, something. And then one night he saw something oozing out of a rift in the fabric of reality, and he knew that he could not fail in his duties this time.

So there ya have it. I see Gull as the kind of character that gets his ass kicked the first time he meets the opposition, but they leave him alive because they respect his nobility or some shit. I think at the end of the movie, you think he sacrifices himself, but survives to get a medal pinned on right before the credits. 

Character Creation: Serenity

Take my love, etc.

The Game: Serenity
The Publisher: Margaret Weis Productions
Degree of Familiarity: Just a couple of one-shots here and there, mostly at cons
Books Required: Just the core. 

Well, no point standing on ceremony. He hates that.

Step One: Choose a Heroic Level. This is a GM decision, and since I don't have one, I'll go with Veteran. Someone who's been out in the 'Verse long enough to have some history, but whose story is still very much in development. That gives me 48 Attribute points to kick around.

Step Two: Choose Traits. Now, I like this. I choose my Asset/Faults before doing numbers. I like that because these traits tend to define characters more than numbers do. And I've got some ideas.

My character has had something of a checkered past. It's not so much that he's run afoul of the law (not often), but just that he's never stuck to anything for too long. He was going to be a Shepherd, but discovered that he just didn't have the right temperament (see Faults). He worked on the crew of an Alliance ship - not as a soldier, but as a grunt, a menial worker. And then he got caught banging a soldier in the mess hall. She got demoted, he got sent to work with some truly horrible chemicals, painting ships.

See, those huge ships are marked with special paint that resists the heat of re-entry, and they store that shit in giant vats. My guy was working with those vats, running a big loader-ship, and something got jammed. He investigated, and his idiot partner threw the thing into gear. My guy pitched forward and caught himself before going in - but he dipped his right hand into the vat up to the mid-wrist. It stained permanently black, and the nerves aren't in great condition. He can barely feel anything with that hand. He beat the shit out of the guy, and got fired for his trouble.

Now he works on a ship, taking what jobs he can get. I think his job on the ship is Mechanic, but he knows a lot of weird little trivia and tricks from his time doing odd jobs across the 'Verse.

There, now for some Traits. I can take five Assets and five Complications. Think I'll take I'll five Complications? Hell, yes, I will.

First up, I take Amorous. What the hell, it'll be easy to play, and it's how my character keeps getting into trouble. I'll take Memorable because of his jet-black right hand. I'll take Superstitious; my character went a little screwy from the accident (maybe the fumes), and he sees omens everywhere. I'll take Dull Sense (touch); the chemicals deadened his skin a bit (which makes the whole "amorous" thing a little odd, though on the plus side, he can last forever). Finally, because I think I'd like a Major Complication, I'll take Chip on the Shoulder. Someone hurts this guy, he goes for blood.

OK, that's four Minor and one Major Complications. So let's us balance those out with Assets, yeah? But it means I have 12 points to play with, just in case I want to take two Major Assets and a minor, instead.

Well, I'll take Cortex Specter as a Minor Asset. This guy managed to wipe out most of what the Alliance had on him, and he's hard to find on a casual search. I'll take Intimidatin' Manner - he can do that trick where he lights a match under his hand and just lets the flesh sizzle, and the hand itself is just unsettling. Also there's the way he stares. I'll take Mean Left Hook; he doesn't feel any pain when he hits people, and it makes a difference. Seems like I should take Mechanical Empathy if I'm the mechanic, don't it? Finally, because that Chip on the Shoulder is going to get me in trouble, I'll take Fightin' Type.

Step Three: Attributes. I get 48 points here, as mentioned. There are six Attributes, meaning I could have a d8 in all of them if I wanted. But I don't think I'll do that.

Reading through the book, I don't see a handy table of what Attributes get used with what Skill, and the combat section doesn't seem to say if punching somebody relies on Strength or Agility. Hrm. Could be either. That's annoying. Well, let's take Strength at a d8, Agility at a d8, and Vitality at a d6. That's 22 points spend. And then I take Alertness at a d6, Intelligence at a d8, and Willpower at a d10. That's 46 points spend; I have two more. I'll bump Strength to a d10.

Step Four: Calculate Derived Attributes. Life points = Vitality + Willpower, or 16. Initiative is Agility + Alertness, or 14.

Step Five: Skills. I get 68 points in Skills. What's interesting is that I can only take a Skill to a d6, after which I have to buy Specialties instead. So I can buy Unarmed Combat to d6, but take Brawling at a d10. Which I might. Let's look through these. Supposedly a d6 is enough to be competent.

Athletics (always take Athletics) d6
Covert d4
Discipline d6
-d8 (Interrogation)
Guns d4
Influence d6
-d10 (Intimidation)
Knowledge d4
Mechanical Engineering d6
- Mechanical Repair d8
Perception d6
Pilot d2
Planetary Vehicles d4
Technical Engineering d2
Unarmed Combat d6
- Brawling d10

Step Six: Finishing Touches. Shopping. Sigh. I have 1500 credits. I spend 46 of them on ballistic mesh (armor is good). I'll buy a pistol for 18 credits. And then the stuff in the engineer's supplies looks handy. I'll buy the toolkit (284), some Scrapper's Gel (10, so 5 doses), a cutting torch (4), a CAD board (27), and a gravcart (485, but well worth it - it's a little anti-grav thingie that can carry up to a ton of stuff, which is easily enough for a person). That means I've spent 874 credits, and I still have 626 left.

And now the rest. Well, I went through his background before. His real name is Louis Beech, but that name is old news. He doesn't use it anymore. He goes by Dexter, or "Dex" to his friends. "Dexter," as you probably know, is Latin for "right." He gave himself that nickname, inadvertently. He was trying to scare off some thugs while doing a smuggling run on Persephone (everyone comes to Persephone), and when they asked who the hell he was, he narrowed his eyes, held up his jet-black, creepy-looking right hand and said (in Latin), "He is at my right hand, I will not be shaken" (Acts 2:25, if you're interested). The only word they caught was "Dexter," though, and they assumed that was his name, but the ploy worked - they fucked off and started talking about this crazy wei shian dohn woo with the black hand.

Dex was born on Beaumonde, a decent kind of planet. Parents were factory workers, dad moved up from line grunt to manager and wanted his son to do more than menial labor. The priesthood was the first choice, but Dex had a problem staying away from ladies, and it was when he began to seriously contemplate the notion of "celibacy" that he decided that menial labor maybe wasn't so bad, after all.

Dex is a big guy. He's not as thick as Jayne (in any sense of the word), but he's muscular and well-defined. He wears short-sleeved shirts, but if he wants to be extra scary, he has a special black button-down with the right sleeve cut. He wears a black glove on his left hand, so he looks all back from neck to waist - until people realize that, no, his right hand isn't covered, it's just black. He wears a pistol on his belt, but he'd rather close in and beat on a guy, since he's more than capable of killing a man with his bare hands. Dex clings to being a mechanic as a way to avoid just being a full-time thug. He feels, perhaps correctly, that he's smarter than that. 

 

Character Creation: Alpha Omega

Yesterday, while waiting for NTB to rack up nearly a thousand dollars worth of repair to my car (in fairness, it's working much better now that the dinglehoppers have been re-bloofered I DON'T SPEAK CAR), I read through CthulhuTech. I liked it on a quick read; I have no idea how well it would work in play, but reading it, I immediately wanted to make a character. So, obviously, I'm making one for a different game tonight.

The Game: Alpha Omega: The Beginning and the End
The Publisher: Mind Storm Labs
Degree of Familiarity: Not much, yet. I've read the core book and thumbed through the monster book. I'm planning to run the game just as soon as I can, but since I suspect I'll be making the characters, I'd better know how to do it.
Books Required: Just the (fucking beautiful) core book.

 
So, in brief, the apocalypse has come, the Elim (angels/demons) have come back, there are huge city/states but lots of free wilderness territory with horrible monsters in between. This game has shades of Shadowrun, Rifts and every cyber-punk game you've ever played, plus some In Nomine, and what the hell, a couple a' corndogs.

Reading it, the awesome factor is pretty high. The system, I've gotta be honest, makes me nervous, mostly because it looks...well, involved. I hate the fluff/crunch terminology, generally because I hate it that setting material I devote so much time and energy into writing is dismissed as "fluff", but the ruleset here looks like it has a learning curve. And that's OK; I'm fine with involved systems. A large part of why I don't like D&D isn't because the system is "crunchy," but because it doesn't make any goddamned sense from a storytelling perspective (I kill orcs so I get better at all my skills? The hell?).

One thing is specific that makes me nervous is that characters are built on a 500 point base, but you're meant to get 250 for a successful adventure (if I'm reading that right). That means that a character gets half-again more powerful after the first session, which makes me wonder how viable starting characters are. Now, I've actually talked to the designer about this, and his recommendation was that the ST needs to choose opponents carefully and according to the PCs abilities, and that's perfectly fair.

Well, let's turn on the juice and see what shakes loose.

Step One: Getting Started. I'm meant to ask myself some questions about my character. I'm told that I'm not going to build a perfect character, and that's "alright." (Has that spelling come into accepted usage yet? Because it's making my editor sense tingle.)

OK, the last two characters I made were more mental/social than physical, so let's do someone more in a combat vein this time. But, I do have in the back of my mind that I'm not sure that "badass" is a viable concept on 500 CDP (Character Development Points). So for now, I'll say that I want my character to be combat-capable and work out the specifics as I go. I would also like the Freezones to be involved, because I like 'em.

Step Two: Choose Your Species. I could play a human, of course, but I could also play an angel-human hybrid. Or a mutant. Or a bioengineered clone. But really, the species that's captured my fancy are the Necrosi. Check it:

They were basically people mutated by radiation from a meteor, and now they're all pale and gothic and spikey in places. I like 'em. Now, they do hate humans, which would make playing one difficult without some group attention to that problem, but hey, since it's just me...

Necrosi are very clannish. They value pain above other feelings, and it's a focal point for everything they do. That's got some legs, right there. They're also fascinated with death and the undead.

I note down the stuff I get from my species choice. I get low-light vision and sharp hearing, but I also take penalties to operating in normal light or noise conditions (that might suck). I get a bunch of Abilities for free, including Blood Lust, Sadistic and High Pain Tolerance. I get an extra 80 CDP for Abilities, but then I have to take at least 80 in Drawbacks, so it's not really much of a bonus.

I can, if I wish, be a Wielder, which is this system's magic. I'm undecided. The only reason I'd do it would be to try it out, but I'm not sure if I'm that patient tonight. We'll see. Let's move on.

Step Three: Core Qualities. The base levels of these Qualities are set by my Species. The scale for starting characters goes 1 to 30, but the scale actual goes to 100, which makes me a little nervous (don't want to suck!). As a base, I get:

Strength 12
Agility 15
Conditioning 14
Vitality 11
Discipline 14
Intelligence 13
Charisma 11

Oy. The book recommends I spend 100 points on this, but I'll blow through that right away. I want my Agility to be high. OK, let's make the decision to eschew magic right now; I'll make a Wielder for some other game sometime. Flipping through the weapons at the back, I like the look of tonfa. They have some that are spikey, and I can just see this guy, gray skin, wiry muscles, tonfa in each hand, deflecting the attacks of the goons coming for him. Why? Well, I'll worry about that later. Right now, I've got the beginnings of a concept going. But it does mean I need to think ahead a little.

Melee Combat, which is the Skill Field I'll need, is a function of Athleticsm, which is a function of Strength and Agility. If I wanted to pump them both to 20, it'd cost me (hang on) 245 points. Little bit more than the 100 they recommend, clearly. I can lower other Qualities, but I'm leery of doing that, especially since have a higher Vitality might also be good. How about if I bump Strength to 15 (cost me 45), Vitality to 15 (costing me 60) and Agility to 18 (costing me 60). I've therefore spent 165. I'll bump his Intelligence down to 12, saving me 15 points, for an even 150 spent. That should be OK.

Step Four: Secondary Qualities. Derived traits, you see. No change from points, just altering qualities. I come up with:

Athleticism: 17
Physical Acumen: 16
Fitness: 15
Will: 15
Wisdom: 13
Wit: 12
Presence: 13

Clearly, I'm strongest with general physical prowess, which is the aim. So far, so good.

Step Five: Tertiary Qualities. Again, no way to change these, they're just averages.

Reaction: 15
Physis: 15
Endurance: 28
Movement: Figure this later.
Defense Rating: 8

Step Six: Health Pool. You know, it's interesting to me that all these derived traits are done up front. There had better not be anything in the later steps, where I actually buy shit, that alters them, or that's bad (and frequent) game design. Anyway, I have 29 Health.

Step Seven: Abilities and Drawbacks. Boo-yah! I can buy stuff! Remember I get 80 points here, but I have to balance that with 80 points in Drawbacks. I've spent 150 of my total 500, if you're keeping track.

OK, I want Ambidexterity. Duh. 100 points. I want Coordinated, but it's expensive, so I'll keep looking.

An aside, check this out: Blood Lust gives me a bonus when I get hit. Sadistic gives me a bonus when I hit you. That's cool, but those are standard for Necrosi. Consider the implications for the race if all of them like to hit and be hit.

OK, I'll skip Coordinated, but I'll take Skill Aptitude for Two-Handed Melee. My Athleticism is considered 19 when using that Skill, and I get +1 to Success Checks for it. That costs me 50, which I think is a bargain. I've spent 150 on Abilities, for a total of 300, but I have to buy 80 points of Drawbacks.

Well, I'll take Wanted. That gives me 100 points and fulfills my obligation. I figure my Necrosi was captured in a city-state by a bunch of security personnel, and just got pissed off, grabbed their nightsticks and went to town. He got away, but there are some survivors and buddies of those who didn't survive who'd like him taken down, and that's translated to some unpleasantness. That takes me to 200 spent, 300 left. I'll take the Impulsive Drawback, too. I can't Prepare an Action, but I don't see preparation as being a big part of this guy's life anyway. That gives me 50 more back.

Step Eight: Genetic Deviations. I already have a few, but let's see if any more are appealing. They are, in fact. I'll drop 100 points here and take Muscular System 2, which increases all my Strength-Based Game Elements by two categories. What does that mean? Dunno, but I know melee damage is based on Strength, so it can't be bad that my muscles are freakishly dense. That puts me up to 250 spent. Moving on.

Step Nine: Skills. Now, as I understand it, Skills just add to your roll total straight up, while Qualities determine how many and what type of dice you roll. I know I want a good rating in Melee Combat (that's a Field) and One-Handed Melee (that's a specific Skill). But odds are I'll want some other stuff, too. I see my character as being street-smart more than book-smart, so I'll look to that arena for skills. 30 for Coercion, and I'll buy 3 points in Intimidation (30 more). There's a Skill called Street Smarts, and I want that, so I'll dump 30 into it by itself.

Better do some combat Skills. I want 3 in the Melee Combat Field, so that's 90 freaking points. And then 3 more in Two-Handed Melee is 30 more. Shit, I've only got 40 points left. I'll put a point into Core Fitness Field (30) and the remaining 10 I'll use to buy a rank of Pistols and SMGs.

Step Ten: Wielding. As mentioned, I'm not making this guy a Wielder, so I skip this.

Step Eleven: Equip Your Character and Conserve CDP. I get 2500 Trust to buy shit. If I wished, I could save 50 CDP, ha, ha. Let's go shopping.

I blow 60T on a pair of scabbards, for my next purchase: My tonfa. They're only 50T each, so I've spent 160. I'll spend 600 on a set of armored clothing; I figure my guy doesn't have the patience for anything heavier. I figure I might need a gun, so I'll buy a Mantis MP5A3X; little SMG used by special forces and the like (and continuing my character's tradition of using cop weapons). That's another grand, and requires another holster (30). Bullets are 1T each; I'll buy 50 for now.

760 left. Oh, look at that. I can buy lenses implanted into my eyes that dampen daylight. Um, yes. That costs 250. And heck, I'll get sound dampeners for the same reason. I'll just keep my remaining 310T; I'm sure I'd want a backpack or a flask of oil or something, but as I've mentioned, I hate the shopping portion of RPGs.

Step Twelve: Appearance. Well, your average Necrosi male is about 6 foot, 190lbs. My guy is a little heavier because of his dense muscles, but the height's about right. We'll say six-foot, 220lbs. He doesn't like tattoos or piercings, but does dig scarification, especially done by electricity (it heals, and then he can get it done again). At any given time, he's got spiral and whorl patterns on his face, arms, head, neck and body. His permanent markings are up and down his legs, scars caused by beatings with rattan canes. They're ugly and irregular, but that's fine. Pain isn't neat and clean, and neither should the evidence be.

He's bald and has dead-flesh gray eyes. He's missing two teeth and has never bothered to get them replaced. He carries his tonfa at his sides, on his hips, and his SMG on his back.

Step Thirteen: Name, Languages, Personality, and Background. Woof. OK, well, let's do name. His clan name was Ioan (/jan/), but he only goes by that among other Necrosi. Among non-Necrosi, he's usually called Reverend, or Rev, because of the prayerful way he enters combat (head bowed, tonfa up at his sides to protect his face).

Rev isn't a nice guy. He's a Necrosi, and let's face it, they're sadists as a matter of course. He's not much for words or thinking, not that he's stupid, but he's no genius. But he's not into hating humans (or anyone, really) just because, and he's fine working with other species if a) the money's right and b) he's allowed to hurt people. He's not a devious sort, and that makes him nominally honest, but he's got no specific compunction against lying.

If there's a deep dark secret to Rev, it's that he misses his clan. He got started running the Freezones, doing courier work, bodyguarding, lookout, whatever, and just kind of got swept up. He's not learned, and he's not sure he could find his way home even if he wanted to. What's fucked up about the whole thing is that the one he misses most was his aunt - no one could wield a rattan cane like her, and his favorite scars were from her.

Languages. These cost points, godfuckit. Well, heck. Let's take the Bad Driver Drawback. Rev just feels weird with his hands occupied, and never really learned to drive because of it. That gives me 20 points back, so I say that he can speak and read Necrosi (that's free, or it should be) and English (10 points) and can speak Russian and Outsider (Remnant language, might come in handy).

I think that about does it, in fact. Not exactly a quick process, that, but I figured that going in.

 

Character Creation: GURPS 3rd Ed

"GURPS" is a fun word. Sounds like a noise a bullfrog would make.

The Game: GURPS 3rd. Edition, using the Creatures of the Night book
The Publisher: Steve Jackson Games.
Degree of Familiarity: Not a hell of a lot. I've played GURPS on occasion, usually with Karafa, but never run it and never made my own character.
Books Required: Just the GURPS book, but like I said, I'm using a sourcebook as flavor for the stew.

 

OK, GURPS, as probably everyone still reading these posts (anybody?) knows, is Generic Universal Roleplaying System. It's just...a system, and TMK was the first one using this setup; publishing the system as its own book and then a bunch of sourcebooks for any damn thing you want. Seriously, d20 talks a good game, but GURPS, at last count, has approximately eleventy-twice billionty sourcebooks available.

Well, I only own three. Creatures of the Night is one I've owned for a long time, I sing its praises frequently because it's a goddamn awesome buy if you run any kind of horror. I've never run GURPS, but of the 67 (!) creatures in this book (hang on) at least 30 and probably more have found their way into the games I've run.

But that's the thing: I'm using this book primarily as inspiration, because the creatures in it aren't really playable. Well, a few of them might be. But let's do this: Each creature has several adventure seeds. So I'll randomly pick a creature, pick one of those seeds, and then make a character appropriate to that scenario.

Hang on, gonna need some entropy.

My result creature is the Fabricant. These are living creatures who are slowly turning into robots. I can't remember if I've used these guys or not; seems like I might have in an old game of Mage: The Ascension (where they'd have fit in nicely), but I don't know anymore. In any event, GURPS measures Tech Level; we're at approximately Tech Level 7 right now (amusingly, the years listed for TL8 start at 2001, so where the hell are the fusion powered spacecraft, huh?). Fabricants always turn into beings two TL above their surroundings, so one made in the modern day would be TL 9, and have access to awesome stuff accordingly.

Oh, further coolness: Fabricants grow a lair of flesh over themselves, which they can peel off at will and scare the crap out of people. If living beings eat this flesh, they change into fabricants, too. Indeed, that's how fabricants can repair themselves - feed their flesh to animals, then cannibalize the animals for parts.

Let's have a look at the adventure seeds. One of them ("Discarded Miracles") doesn't do much for me; it's about a fabricant hanging out in a junkyard full of weird science. It's OK, but eh. But then the other one, "Fermina", is kind of interesting. Fermina is a vampire/fabricant. She's TL9, so she has bionic limbs and retractable fangs, as well as whatever other TL9 stuff the GM might like. She likes to rip off her skin and go skiving around the city's rooftops "nude," but still acts like a vampire. But an interesting point: Can she still drink blood? I think if I were the GM, I might introduce some kind of reactor in her innards that converts the energy of living blood into an efficient fuel. Then, after we take this bitch down, we have to decide what to do about that engine. It'd be damned useful, and it's not like it's hard to get blood, right?

But I'm getting ahead of myself. Let's see. My character is a modern-day person who's going to wind up hunting down a robotic vampire. The temptation to take the same backstory I used for the Gremlin and apply it here is great, but I'll refrain. Instead, I think I'll play someone who knows vampires, but not robots.

Actually, if you'll pardon a really weird inspiration, did you happen to catch the movie Turbulence? Ray Liotta as a serial killer, some...blond woman as the star (Lauren Holly, now that I've looked). But what I remember about the movie, apart from being pretty unimpressed, was that in the opening scene where Liotta's character is captured, Hector Elizondo plays a cop who thinks he knows Liotta front and back, and is pretty arrogant about it (and is wrong on some key points). So my character will be a self-styled vampire expert, and in the game would get to see the vampire "tells"...and then get totally rocked when it turns out that she's a robot vampire.

Step One: Basic Attributes. I picture this person as being mostly mental, rather than physical. That means putting Intelligence high at a sacrifice to the other attributes. I'll put INT at 15; that eats 60 of my 100 points. I'll put STR at 10 (Average, costs nothing) and DEX at 9 ("costs" -10). I'll put Health at 10, Average, as well. Overall, I've spent 50.

My Speed score is (HT + DEX)/4, or 4.75.

Step Two: Physical Appearance. I can picture this guy. Black hair, balding, bad comb-back job, pasty skin, glasses, with a predilection for poofy shirts and other weird affectations of clothing. You've met him at cons, I'm sure. I think that's "Unattractive Appearance," so I get 5 points back.

Step Three: Wealth and Status. In the real world, having a lot of knowledge in some esoteric area of lore (like, say, vampires) doesn't pay unless you write novels that sell. It'd be an interesting twist to make this guy a novelist and give him money and status in that area. Actually, hell, that'd be fun to play. I'll take "Wealthy," which means I start with about $75K and work only 20 hours a week. I figure he actually works a lot more than that when he works, but his "work" is mostly research and when he writes, he goes on benders and burns out a book in a couple of months.

Now, Reputation. Enough people read my guy's books that he enjoys a +2 reaction bonus (10 points) with a fairly large group of people (folks who like lurid vampires novels), but he's not recognized all that often (sometimes). So that's 2 points it costs me.

I'm not changing his Status; while he's nominally a celebrity, he's also kind of a jerk, definitely arrogant, and doesn't really mix with other folks in his monetary class.

Step Four: Advantages. OK, let's see what's appropriate for my guy.

I think I'd like Eidetic Memory. I always wonder about this merit/advantage in RPGs, because it's so hard to simulate, but here, it gives you a double return on points into mental skills, and since I'm sure I'll be taking some of those, this seems like a good investment. That's 30 points.

Honestly, though, beyond that I don't see much else that grabs me. So I'll move on.

Step Five: Disadvantages. I'm currently at 97 points spent, so I'll need some disadvantages so I can buy skills.

OK, I'll take Odious Personal Habit. Yes, this will cancel my reputation bonus, but it is what it is. My character has a habit of getting too close to people, and it's off-putting.

I'll take Bad Sight (remember those thick glasses); that's another 10 points.

Hell, just to make my life hard, I'll take Hemophilia for 30 points. He likes to talk about how bleeding endlessly from tiny cuts first interested him in vampires. I'll take Combat Paralysis, because it's appropriate (did you notice I wrote rules for this into Armory Reloaded?). And I think that'll do. I have 58 points now.

Step Six: Quirks. Love these. Just weird little character bits, but you get a point each for them, up to five. Let's see. I'll take these five quirks:

- Calls attractive women "milady."
- Carries a pocket mirror and checks people he suspects of being vampires (with a laugh and a nudge; he doesn't really think that would work)
- Only wears black slacks, because they "go with anything"
- Dislikes guns and loud noises
- Spells using English spellings ("colour" and so on)

Step Seven: Skills. Right, here's the real meat-and-butter. I can only use points equal to twice my age, but I picture this guy as being at least 35, so that's not an issue. I get double the skill points on mental skills. The skills I want:

Writing 15 (1)
Breath Control 13 (1)
Fencing 10 (4)
Language (French) 15 (1)
Language (Spanish) 15 (1)
Computer Operation 16 (1)
Forensics 14 (1)
History 15 (2)
Literature 15 (2)
Occultism 16 (2)
Psychology 14 (1)
Research 15 (2)
Theology 15 (2)
Carousing 13 (16)
Savoir-Faire 16 (1)
Driving (car) 10 (4)

Wow, that still means I have 21 points left. Hell, are there other skills I should take? My skill totals are pretty damned impressive for average difficulties. I'll bump Occultism up to 20, which eats a further 4 points, and I'll specialize in Vampires. That means I have an effective 25 when dealing with vampires, but a 19 (still impressive) when dealing with anything else. 17 points left. I'll take the Night Vision Advantage (10 points); I figure he's mostly nocturnal anyway.

And, some more Skills:

Photography 15 (1)
Crossbow 11 (2) (for keeping up appearances)
Stealth 10 (4)

Step Eight: Equipment and Encumbrance. This won't take long. As long as I'm not carrying more than 20lbs of stuff on me, which I'm not, I don't take an encumbrance penalty. I figure the most this guy carries is a palm pilot, maybe a laptop. I don't wear armor or carry a weapon, normally.

Step Nine: Completing Your Character. Almost there! Really, all I need is:

Name: The book says I ought to know this by now. I am abased. Well, I figure his real name is something average and dull. We'll say he was born Ethan Williams. However, he writes novels under the name E. Lewis Paver.

And that's it! Lewis is ready to get out there and find that the real creatures of the night are a lot more techologically sophisticated than he is. 

Character Creation: Hellas: Worlds of Sun & Stone

So anyway:

The Game: Hellas: Worlds of Sun and Stone
The publisher: Khepera Publishing
Degree of familiarity: None. I picked it up at Origins (I think, maybe it was GenCon) last year, but didn't get a chance to play it.
Books required: Just the core and a great deal of time, which today I have.

I think this character is actually for the 1st edition, but my PDF is this one

 
OK, this game uses lifepaths, in a big way. You're not just creating a character, you've got a whole history going on, because these characters are meant to mythic in scope. Hell, you're actually meant to play the character's dynasty, which in a long chronicle, would be fully awesome.

Only one minor niggle, and it's something Stew pointed out when he did his character for this game: Some of the races that you can play don't have families in the same way that humans (Hellenes) do, which renders the whole "lifepath" thing a little unwieldy. Now, I'm not going to let that stop me, of course.

As an aside, I find that when I make characters for systems that include extended chargen sections - either in the "20 questions" form of Legend of the Five Rings or Edge of Midnight, or the lifepath form a la Shattered Dreams, I enjoy the extra thought it makes me put into characters. This is especially true if I don't know the game as well. I put lots of thought into World of Darkness characters, but the setting is quite familiar to me, too. Then when I get around to making a character for, say, Shadowrun, it doesn't have the same breadth, not because the information isn't out there, but because I'm not as familiar with it and the chargen section doesn't ask me to delve in the same ways (not that I wouldn't like to play T'kor, if anyone were running Shadowrun, you know, well).

OK, digression over, back to space opera. The Hellas book is really fucking pretty, and I enjoyed reading it quite a bit. Fiction bits were short and sweet, and I feel, after reading it, that I "get it" enough to play it. As for the system, I have no idea, but I admit my eyes tend to glaze over when I read systems. I need to see them in play first.

Well, my first step here is determine a race. OK. There are some cool ideas here, but the one that kept jumping out at me was the Myrmidons. These guys are living colonies of tiny insects, formed into a human shape (ever see the old Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends episode where the villain was a dude made of bees called "Swarm?").

What I like about this race is that they worship Hellenic gods and try to emulate the Hellenes. That is, they try and act human...but they aren't. They mimic human family structure, even pretending to reproduce the same way humans do (go ahead, picture two human-shaped clouds of insects doing it, I dare you), all in this kind of twisted hero-worship thing they've got going. That's creepy, and I love it. I could play that to the bone.

Myrmidons usually latch onto a Hellene to mimic or worship, which I would totally do with another Hellene character. Since Stew didn't make one, I'll just leave it at that. I will, however, note the stuff I get from being a bug-man.

My racial attributes:

Intelligence +0
Will +0
Perception +0
Charisma +0
Strength +0
Dexterity +3
Constitution +2
Speed +0
Combat Rating +0
Dynamism -3

Hit Points: 20

And then I get some Skills, which I note on the character sheet.

These might change as the process continues. I also get some special powers. I heal quickly, because "healing" means "making more bugs." I can shapeshift, I can add extra limbs (sweet!). And - holy crap, this is fun - I can ooze through cracks in an opponent's armor and fucking sting them to death. Enough Myrmidons can cluster together to make, say, a bridge or a spaceship. I can split off a little chunk of myself to go make me a smammich. And, of course, I can see in 360 degrees.

Holy crap, these guys are cool. OK, what's next!?

I roll on Life Path to determine my "childhood" (larva-hood?) adventures. Remember that Myrmidons don't really have childhoods, but it would be interesting if they put restrictions on how big they go during their early years, just to emulate childhood. Better go grab some entropy.

Let's see. I was born in Spring, specifically in Thargelion. I don't see anything about what that means in the section and the index is no help, dangit. Hm. Also, "birth" is a misnomer. I assume that Myrmidon breeding happens when a new queen is hatched, which technically doesn't require two Myrmidon colonies at all. But, if they want to emulate Hellenes, it should - the "mother" provides the queen egg and the "father" provides the male fertilization, so there we go.

Moving on, where was I "born"? The planet Aegina, the Myrmidon homeworld. Makes sense. Lemme look that up. Ooh, neat. The planet Aegina was devastated by a plague, one that pretty much killed every living thing there except the Myrmidons, which it elevated to sentience instead. Young Myrmidons pretty much leave as soon as they can. But some of my reasons for leaving might be covered in future rolls, so let's move on.

The next roll tells me I'm an orphan and I raised myself. Sounds good. My "parents" died in an accident on Aegina - crushed in a cave-in (bugs are hard to kill unless you get the queens). The other Myrmidons didn't know quite what to do, here; yes, I should be "raised" by someone else, but it's not like bugs aren't born with everything they need to be adults. My guy pretty much just grew faster than he normally would have been allowed to and went on with his life.

Next, parents' social station (pre-death, obviously). Nobles. Neato! So their death might have been assassination, or just a horrible accident. Hmm. I also get +5 Glory and the Royal Favor Talent.

Now, family status. Wow. We're destitute and powerless - I'm their only hope. Heavy burden for my shoulder-like-clusters-of-bugs.

How many siblings? One "twin." Ooh, that's interesting. When my folks created a new queen, they got two. That's gotta be uncommon. How does my twin feel about me? Competitive rival, but loves me. Maybe. I have an idea, here. My twin and I read up on some great Hellenic legend about feuding twins, and decided to emulate them. Problem is, the legends vary from place to place, and sometimes they end with one twin killing the other. Also, we argue about which twin is which.

Right, special gift: My folks left me a small fortress on a Theban asteroid. That's interesting. I figure there are actually two, one for me and one for my twin, orbiting near each other, almost exactly alike.

Divine Heritage: My great-grandmother on my mother's side had a divine parent (and was also a twin, how about). I get 3 more Glory. My Divine Mark is that I'm Very Wise. I get +1 Perception. A thousand eyes will do that.

Childhood Encounter: If I can tie this in to my parents' deaths, I will. Let's see. OK, I encountered "someone special." I met a Hero in the market when I was young, who gave me a small trinket and told me to keep it safe. Neato. I figure he's still got the small trinket in him, surrounded by the bugs. Or, fuck, how about this: The trinket is a lock, made of gold and brass. My guy has no idea where the key is, and he's never told anyone, not even his brother, about the lock. But his brother was in the market that day, too...

Now I choose a god. And I actually choose, I don't roll. I like the idea of this guy being about secrets, symbolized by a lock. I choose Aphrosia, the Lover (plays into the month of my birth, too). My twin, of course, is chosen of Athenia, whose domains are about prophecy and investigation (symbolized by a key, GET IT?).

Destiny: I choose Destiny (but not Fate, which is next). This is the heroic end to my Hero's story. Hmm. I think that his Destiny would involve reuniting lock and key, and therefore revealing some great secret or uncovering some kind of special wisdom. This will involve learning that my twin has the key, and convincing him to share it with me (yes, there's some very, er, Greek things going on with my twin, here, made slightly more palatable by the fact that we're two colonies of bugs). Joining Lock and Key, and discovering the Song of the Myrmidons - sounds good to me. What's the Song do? Dunno. That's for the GM to figure out, but I personally think these guys need their own racial identity, rather than aping the Hellenes. Maybe the song will help them find it.

Now, Fate: Roll a 5, roll a 5, roll a 5....4. Shit. "Killed by a foreign warrior." Well, actually, that could still be my brother, depending on the circumstances.

Profession. The Myrmidon-specific ones don't do anything for me. I think Ambassador speaks to me. It allows my guy to work at keeping secrets while appearing to be open and forthright, and puts me into a diplomatic spotlight which makes the "killed by a foreign warrior" thing more likely. Let's see. That gives me +1 Charisma and a bunch of Skills, which I note. As an amusing note, one of my skills is Seduction. Ew. Oh, I also make a Skill roll to see how much money I start with. OK. Since no Degree of Difficulty is listed, I assume it's unmodified. I roll a 3, to which I add my CHA bonus (+1) and my Profession Skill (+4) and get 8, which is a partial success, so I start with my full 2000 drachma.

Now, Callings. This is fun! I can take up to 5 Calling Life Paths, but each one ages me. That's OK; it's not like Myrmidons are going to be wrinkly (and besides my Goddess ensures I always look hot, which weirds me out some). Oh, side note: The book acknowledges that this creates characters that are not "balanced." Good on you, guys. Game balance is for video games and D&D.

So, where do we start? The Callings open to me are Legionnaire of Delphoi, Noble, Priest, Sailor and Scholar. So let's think. I figure that after the parent-crushing incident, my guy decided to get the hell off of Aegina for a while, so "Sailor" is a good start. I shall roll on the Sailor Life Path and see what happens. OK, first, how much did this age me? 4 years. OK. So what happened to me as a Sailor? A special event! Yay! Oh, well. I've "seen many things and experienced different cultures." I get a +1 in languages. I'll use that to bump my Hellene language up to Fluent. That's totally in-character, though it's no "fight a giant space-squid," is it? Maybe next time.

So after spending four years as a Sailor (during which I assume I wasn't doing grunt work - I was probably on an exploratory or diplomatic vessel), let's assume he moved up in the world and spent some time as a Noble. Roll for age: 3 years (7 total). Roll for event: Enemy! My enemy is an Atlantean. Ugh. What's an Atlantean? Jesus. That's fun. OK, he's trying to kill me because I'm fated to kill him, and he's working with my other enemies to kill me.

OK, let's put this in context. My guy knows nothing about the Atlantean. All he knows is that during his travels as a Noble (I figure the shift from Sailor to Noble happened once he learned about his fortress and figured out that "Mom" and "Dad" had some clout, even among Hellenes) he met a dark man during a diplomatic conference. That mean, an oracle, reported back to his Atlantean master that he had foreseen this young Myrmidon unlock the Song of the Myrmidon, the Music of the Endless Swarm...and that Swarm would be coming for him (the Atlantean) one day. This Atlantean, not wishing to have that happen, started digging in my guy's life, and found...his twin. Now he's working to nudge my twin into killing me, hopefully destroying the lock in the process. But the Atlantean doesn't know that my twin has the key, which would shut down my Destiny just as quickly.

Next Path: How about another stint as a Noble? The roll: 3 years. Special event! I cowed an angry mob in the markets using presence and noble stature. Sweet. My twin, in an ongoing effort to fuck with me, drove people into a frenzy, telling them that there was an Atlantean spy around, a Myrmidon noble (ironically, he was right, but it was him). My character spread himself out, making himself look huge but somehow still beautiful (arrrrgh) and told the people to go back to their business - I'm no spy, I'm the Lord and Master of the Fortress on That There Asteroid. I get +1 Command for my trouble.

Fourth Path: I don't know, Noble is still looking good. The roll: 5 years. Event: Relationship. This could get very weird. Oh, damn, it didn't. I befriend a contact on a random world, maybe a player character. I roll for a random world and get Tegea. Tegea is a water planet, where the algae blooms across the whole world, turning it red. Neat. I think my contact there is an algae baron, someone who's responsible for farming it and shipping it off-world. Someone I could call on for a favor (using my Royal Favor Talent) if need be. How close are we? We're friendly, but not blood brothers or anything. I think he's not Hellene, or I'd be friendlier to him. I think he's a Gorgeon, because the notion of talking with a great big fat snake-dude on an algae farm is awesome. His name is Nicias.

Last Path: Not Noble. Um. Fuck it, how about Legionnaire of Delphoi? In meeting and befriending Nicias, my guy learned about the people out there who depend on the Legion to do things as mundane as protect food ships from pirates or just general mishaps. He'd already spent his time working as a diplomat; now maybe it was time to do more. Years: 4 years, and that's because I rolled a 20 (you add 3 for this Path). The event: Enemy again. Ergh. It comes up as "a Parent," which is inconvenient because supposedly my folks are dead. Well, let's continue. Supposedly I foiled this enemy's insidious plot and were hailed a Hero. Sure, OK.

My "mother," known as Candis, didn't die in the cave-in. In fact, she planned it. The idea was to kill my "father" (Dunixi) and take over the family. But the cave-in was a little too successful, and Candis was trapped for a little longer than she wanted to be. In the interim, my character (and his twin), rather than sticking to the "pretend to be children" plan that was common for Myrmidons, grew up and left the planet. Mom wasn't there to rein us in, and with us "adults" but leaving the world, the family line fell to ruin. Mom also couldn't claim her true identity without setting off some alarm bells, so she retreated to the shadows, catching up with my character, what, 15 years later when he joined the Legion. She has, however, fallen in with both his twin and his secretive Atlantean enemy, and is working to kill him and collect his secret trinket, the Lock (Candis, like the Atlantean, doesn't know about the key).

That's Callings done, then. I should do Disadvantages at some point. Interestingly, they aren't listed in the character creation steps. I get five levels of Disadvantages, and I have to have three. Well, I think all of mine are going to be Relationships. First, my twin, obviously. His name is Alcides. I'll put that at level 3 - he's going to be the most important Disadvantage I have. I'll put the Atlantean and Candis as my other two, both at level 1. They're both using Alcides to get at me, but they'll work on their own sometimes, too.

Freebie points! I get 30. Well, since most of my Skills rely on Charisma, I'll spend 10 points and bump it up to +0. I suppose I should buy some combat skill, since I was a Legionnaire. I'll take Brawling. Costs one for one, so I'll buy up to +5. Hell, I'll buy a +1 in Combat Rating, too. I'll drop 5 points on the Well-Traveled Talent. That leaves me with 5 points left, unless I want to drop any of my attributes and get more points. Hate to say it, but Cultural Studies makes some sense. I put 4 points into Hellene and one point in Gorgeon, to reflect my time with Nicias. Guess that'll do it. Without knowing how the system works in play, I have no idea if I suck or not, which makes me nervous. Obviously this is a social, not a combat, character. But I'm a Hero, so you figure the combat would come later.

I start with Hero Points equal to 5 + (Charisma x 2), which is 11 for me. I start with no Fate Points, which is good. I've got +8 Glory right now, and that doesn't change until I go do more stuff.

Heroic Ambitions: I can take up to three of these, and they have to be Heroic, dammit. I don't want them to relate to my Destiny, at least not yet. Let's see.

Well, first, I figure that fortress should figure in somehow. My character wants to host a grand gathering of diplomats at his asteroid fortress (which I think we'll call "the Fire Hive", since it needs a name). Yes, this kind of violates the checklist of ambitions, but I'll also add that I want the gathering to be worthy of a song or story that gets repeated throughout Hellenic space, and I think that counts.

Second, I want to establish fair and safe trading between Nicias and some of the poorer, outlying worlds. Nicias is a buddy, but he's a shrewd trader, he's greedy and he doesn't give a shit about anyone outside his own world. My character wants to see people on other worlds get fed, and some worlds don't support life like they should (especially mining colonies and the like). This'll give him a chance to flex his muscles as a diplomat.

Finally, I want to lead an assault on my brother's fortress (which we'll call the Ice Hive). The two Hives have their names because of the colors of rock they're made of; his is blue and white, mine is red and yellow and black. I don't want to take the Ice Hive, or even destroy it. I just want to invade it, steal some stuff, and show my brother that I can fight, too (I think he's a better warrior than me). Kind of counting coup, in a way.

Now I need an epithet. The book suggests summarizing my character's life and letting the other players suggest an epithet, but clearly that's not an option. So: My character is chosen of Aphrosia, which means he's pretty and all. He's known for being wise, and a shrewd diplomat. But what is he really known for, something that's truly Heroic in scope? We'll say his epithet is "gentle-voiced;" he can soothe people no matter how angry or zealous they are. His name, by the way, is Iphicles, which was Heracles' twin brother. Iphicles, in Greek myth, grew up mortal, but around here, that ain't the case - Iphicles is a Hero in his own right.

Now, age. I start at age 6 (adult for a Myrmidon), and I add 19 years for my Life Paths, meaning I'm 25 now. Still in the "adult" range. Myrmidons don't live all that long, as it happens; age 50 is considered "venerable."

And remarkably, that's it!