Character Creation: Dreaming Cities

I stayed up too late last night, and now I'm feeling pretty wiped out. I suspect I shall do this character, and then hit the proverbial sack.

The Game: Dreaming Cities
The publisher: Guardians of Order, now sadly defunct.
Degree of familiarity: None. I know the Tri-STat system well enough, but I have no direct experience with this particular game. Which isn't a big hurdle. See below.
Books required: Just the core. 

 
Dreaming Cities, like Silver Age Sentinels and Ex Machina, isn't so much a game in and of itself as a genre attached to the Tri-Stat system, along with a few chapters of possible settings. It's urban fantasy, and it spends some time talking about the genre, how to run it, examples in literature, etc. I don't think it did the job as eloquently as either of the other two games I mentioned, but it could just be that I do so much with "urban fantasy" by way of White Wolf that I've got expectations.

Anyway, there are three settings in the back of the books. One is very much like the World of Darkness, so I'm skipping that. The other is pretty cool - it invites you to make characters based on faery tale archetypes (including Red, the little girl who's out to kill Hans Woolver). But the one I'm interested in is The Small Folk, in which you're asked to create house-fae like characters, each about 7-10 cm high, who live in family groups and have to deal with being tiny people in a big person's world. Some of that involves dodging cats and other animals, dealing with the politics of the Small Folk (there are courts and suchlike), and defending their homes, founding new communities, all from the "ground level", as it were. Small Folk are arranged into kiths cliques, which look a lot like White Wolf-style splats, down to the sidebars with "here's what we think of the others" stereotypes.

My character is going to be a riff on Captain Quint in Jaws, only he hunts cats, not sharks. Cats are nasty critters where Small Folks are concerned, and it takes people like Noond, Cat-Hunter, to keep them away from the young'uns. The trick is, of course, that you can't kill the beasties, because the humans that own them tend to get scared and then they fumigate. No, you have to train them to stay away. Ayup.

Step 1: GM Discussion. N/A.

Step 2: Character Outline. I did that up there, mostly, but to expand: Noond grew up living in the walls of a crazy ol' cat-lady's house, and he knows that cats are deadly, vicious, sadistic and sneaky. He remembers the night that a storm made the ceiling collapse in one room, and most of his colony was attacked by the cats. It was horrific. This all happened in Indianapolis (see what I did there?).

Noond tries to pretend he's all business, but in truth, he hates cats and he wishes he could kill them. He likes dogs precisely because they chase cats (or should) and he's not above using dogs to help him when he can. Mostly, though, he likes luring cats to climb onto things and then breaking their footholds somehow. Noond is greedy, too, and his services can always be bought. He likes shiny coins, wire and big pieces of wood. Never you mind why.

Step 3: Assign Stats. Tri-Stat system using d6, 75 points to build characters, 20 Skill Points to start. Each of the cliques have a template that costs some points, and looking them over, the one that works best for Noond is the goblin (only I wouldn't play him as talking like a white guy trying pathetically to impersonate a gangsta. Seriously, there is some poorly-written and borderline offensive dialogue in this section). I have three Stats, Body, Mind and Soul, and I want to be above average across the board (I see Noond as having Skills rather than Magic). Making all three Stats have scores of 6 would cost 36, over half my points. Oy. Let's bump Body down to 4, because I know the template will raise it up again. That's 32 points, a little better.

Consider Template and Assign Attributes. OK, my template costs 30 points, and nets me the following:

+1 Body
+2 Highly Skilled
+1 Speed
+5 Curse of Breaking (Special Attack: 40 damage, Penetrating: Armor x2, Targeted: Non-living matter, Undetectable, Slow x2, Static)
+5 Telekinesis (Activation Time - 1 round, Concentration, Diminutive)

This all means I've spent 62 of my 75 points. I'll also buy Combat Technique: Accuracy, Judge Opponent, Lightning Reflexes, Portable Armory, and Steady Hand. 5 points

I'll take Heightened Awareness at 3. 3 points

I'll take Sensory Block. Noond has mastered making a really annoying noise that deafens anyone in the immediate area. He has to concentrate on it, but it's good for disorienting cats. Level 1, Area PMV 3, Concentration drawback = 3 points

Divine Relationship. Always a handy power. 2 points.

That's 75 exactly, and unless I feel the need to tweak things or take more than the 40 skill points, I don't need to do much else. Let's check.

Er...hang on.

OK, the points on this template are either way off or I'm missing something. The totals actually seem to give my 34 points, not 30, and the Skills are totally whack-a-ding-hoy. I'll be changing some stuff around.

Back to Attributes, the Telekinesis power that goblins wield is supposedly controlled by breakdancing, for fuck's sake. Nah. I'll dump it entirely. Let me reconfigure my totals.

34 points on Stats (Body 5, Soul 6, Mind 6)
Highly Skilled 2 (2 points)
Special Attack: Curse of Breaking. Level 5, (40 damage, Penetrating: Armor x2, Targeted: Non-living matter, Undetectable, Slow x2, Static) (20 points)
Combat Technique: Accuracy, Judge Opponent, Lightning Reflexes, Portable Armory, Steady Hand (5 points)
Heightened Awareness 3 (3 points)
Sensory Block: Hearing (Area PMV 3, Concentration Defect -1) (3 points)
Divine Relationship 2 (2 points)
Diminutive (-4 points)
Blind Fury (-1 point)

Total: 64. I've got 11 left. I'll throw 6 into Attack Combat Mastery 2, and 4 into Defense Combat Mastery 2. With that last point, I'll buy up Highly Skilled to 3.

Step 5: Select Skills. I get 20 points, plus 30 more for Highly Skilled. The skill totals on the template are wildly fucked, so I'll do my own.

Acrobatics (Tumbling) 2
Animal Training (Cats) 3
Burglary (Desks) 2
Climbing (Furniture) 2
Intimidation (Dogs) 2
Melee Attack (Whip) 2
Unarmed Defense (Cats) 1

Hmm. 3 points over. Better take another Defect. I'll take Less Capable: Charisma (Noond is kind of a dick, pushy, greedy, etc.). That gives me a -3 on Soul checks that involve being charismatic. Also gives me 7 more skill points (since buying a fourth point of Highly Skilled gives me another 10, and I only needed three). I'll buy a second point of Unarmed Defense (6 points), and a point of Heavy Weapons (Slingshots). That's a pretty cool image, actually.

Step 6: Select Defects. Already done.

Step 7: Calculate Derived Values. My Attack Combat Value is 7 (the average of my Stats plus my Attack Combat Mastery). My Defense Combat Value is 5 (my ACV minus 2, plus 2 for my Defense Combat Mastery). My Health is 55 (Body + Soul, times 5).

Step 8: Earn Background Points. That is, describe your character and get some love from the GM. Well, Noond is about 8 cm high and 10 grams. He's grizzled-looking and has a nasty scar on his face from a kitten attack. He has a tattoo on his shoulder of a cat's face, fangs dripping with blood, and "1887: Never Forget" underneath (that was the address where he lived during the massacre). He wears a pair of cat-skin pants (very comfy!) and matching boots, and a coat he snagged from an old Paddington Bear doll (and the hat). He carries a dizzying variety of gadgets and widgets, and can whip up a goblin-sized slingshot at a moment's notice. He carries a whip he made from a cat's toy coiled around his hip.

And I think that'll do!