Character Creation: Conspiracy X

The truth is out there, if that's not too cliché.

The Game: Conspiracy X Second Edition 
The publisher: Eden Studios
Degree of familiarity: I think I played it once back in Toledo. I made a DEA agent whose name and basic concept I used years later in my Werewolf chronicle. Other than that, never touched it.
Books required: Just the core. I have the 2nd Ed, pre-Unisystem version. 

ConX is a game about, well, conspiracy, government, and aliens. Lots of aliens. It's higher-tech and more sci-fi than I realized when I played it, and while that took a shift for me, I think it'd be cool to play. I especially like how you can bring the resources of your government agency to bear in order to hunt down aliens.

I will say, though, that the system looks freaky, and if I really felt a burning urge to run this game, I think I'd invest in the Unisystem version.

With that in mind, my first step is Create a character concept. I want to go a little, well, weirder than my last ConX character, who was basically in the dark (I think the one session we played was about learning about aliens and getting into Aegis). So since I'm making someone already part of Aegis, I want to play someone who's in deeper than is healthy. This guy started out following leads like a good investigator, but was probably more a data collector. If he was a cop, he'd be a beat, not a dick. He went down the proverbial rabbit hole, get mixed up with Aegis, and is now so far in that the only way he can ever get out again is to get deeper (if that doesn't make sense, go take a shot, then read it again. Repeat as needed).

Basically, kind like Cypher in The Matrix, but unlikely to betray anyone. Just wants to go back to sleep, but understands why he can't do that. He might be likely to succumb to addiction, except that the little robots in his blood won't let him. Yeah, he's got Atlantean nanotech. On a mission some time back, he walked through a swarm of the damn things (not sure why they had aerosolized) and inhaled them. Now he's got a big advantage, but he's even further into the weirdness than he ever wanted to be. He misses ringing doorbells and doing interviews.

That's a start. Now, Select physical and mental attributes. I like that keeping my stats average would cost nothing, not that I'm going to do that. I'll leave everything average except Perception. My character is observant; made him good at collecting data. That costs me 20 points. And, heck, I'll bump Willpower down to 2, which puts me even again. Everything else is 3.

Modify Luck is next. My Luck starts at 2 (Good) and 12 (Bad). On the one hand, I don't see Lady Fate fucking with this guy too much, but he did walk through a swarm of nanobots. I'll decrease Bad Luck to 10, but up Good Luck to 4. I'm still even, therefore.

Modify Influence. I start with one, and I think that my guy has developed some Influence just by dint of the weirdness that happened to him. I'll spend 15 and go up to Influence 2.

Choose credential. This is the group I work for. Hmm. As much as Secret Service, or one of the more exotic ones (like MKULTRA) appeal, with this concept I think I'll go FBI. My profession is Field Agent.

Pick traits. These are skills and professional trainings. OK. I can go to 1 or 2 in any Skill, but 3 or higher only in my professional skills. And then I get one skill that I can take at a higher level just due to personal interest, which is cool. OK, let's look at the list.

I take Athletics (Running) at 2, Computer Use at 2, Lockpicking at 1, Photography at 2, Small Arms: Pistol at 2, Stealth at 2, Video at 2, Brawling at 2 (one level is free), Drive 2 (one level is free) Occult (Numerology) at 1, Shadow at 2, and Cartography at 3. That's (hang on) 72 points spent. That does net me the Navigation training for free, because I'm good with maps (I see this guy's office hung with maps of crime scenes, "UFO" landings, and so on, and just recently he's gotten into numerology to see if that tells him anything).

Now trainings. I definitely want Awareness (3 points), Investigation (10 points) and Communication (10 points). That puts me to 95 spent. I'm gonna need flaws or something. Fortunately I get other traits that can give me CPs back. OK, right off the bat, since I know I want those freaky nanobots, that's gonna cost me 30. I want the Bio-Battery Energy System, specifically.

OK, need some negative traits. I'll take Deep Sleeper (10 CP; probably relates to the Atlantean stuff, though truth is he was always a log). I'll also take Watched (15), though my character doesn't know that anyone's watching him. And, to dovetail with that, I'll take Creature of Habit (5); he always eats lunch from a brown bag, outside if possible, and he gets really fidgety if he can't.

Let's see, where does that put me? At 95, believe it or not. That gives me 5 more. I'll take Media Leak. I can get information into the papers quickly by acting as an anonymous source. That sounds fun.

History and details. I did most of this. My character's name is John Rostov. Raised some eyebrows from older Bureau guys who remember the Cold War (his grandfather was Russian), but John's not really spy material. He never got to spearhead his own investigations, but he was second in command on a lot of them, and he's good support because he notices things that others don't. He doesn't, however, have an especially strong stomach and he sleeps like a brick, so he's not ready to go at a moment's notice. That kept him back.

And then one day, he dozed off on stakeout. When he woke up, everyone was gone. The agents he was with never returned, but Aegis came calling about what John saw (not much). John noticed that Aegis people's conversation was about aliens (they didn't think he could hear them), and rather than whip out the Mickey, they recruited him. The Atlantean swarm incident happened about a year later, and that's making John Rostov a strange commodity.