Character Creation: Don't Rest Your Head

 OK, I want to make a character before I go help Andrea clean. I don't want to do a White Wolf character, since that's what my last one was, but I also need to make a character that isn't going to take too long.

As such, I'll go with:

The Game: Don't Rest Your Head
The publisher: Evil Hat Productions
Degree of familiarity: None. I bought the game on vacation, read it on the way back, and I full intend to run it sometime soon. But for now, let's make a character.
Books required: Just the Don't Rest Your Head book. 

 
DRYH takes place in a kind of in-between place called the Mad City. The mechanics of the game pretty much ensure that you're going to go nuts, which is fine. The tone of the game is kinda CoC, kinda Edge of Midnight, but not as much WoD as you'd immediately think.

Anyway, the characters are all insomniacs. Unable to sleep, their exhaustion has allowed them to unlock supernatural powers, and also to see doors to the Mad City. But there are things in the Mad City that would love to kill them, eat them, use them, whatever. And on top of that, odds are that whatever was keeping you awake is still an issue. Let's get to it.

First, we get five questions. Well, the thing at the top of the sheet is My Name Is..., so let's do that. My character's name is Tracy Carter. Most of his friends call him "Trace."

What's been keeping you awake? Money problems. Trace's family is broke, and he was working two jobs, basically 20 hours a day, to send them money. And then last month he lost one of the jobs, and started doing odd jobs for criminal elements. Running numbers, delivering "packages," whatever. Trace is quick and he's smart, but he's got no criminal initiative. He's not above a hit of speed now and again to keep him going, and he's been on a run for about the last week.

What just happened to you? Man, I love this question. This literally just happened, so the GM immediately has to deal with it. Anyway, Trace and his older cousin Mark just robbed a gas station. Mark pulled a gun, the idiot behind the counter pulled one as well. Mark shot him, he shot back, Trace shot, and they fell dead. Trace isn't sure who shot whom. He just ran. He's half a block up right now.

What's on the surface? Trace appears to be paranoid and twitchy. He taps his fingers together when he's thinking, he watches the exits, he tugs his ear and chews his lip till it bleeds. He tries not to talk because he can't stop once he starts (characters like this are exhausting to play, but that's appropriate).

What lies beneath? Trace is a loyal family man. He loves his mother and his siblings, and he's torn up about Mark. He'd never admit any of this, because he owes a lot of people money (I think we'll up that speed thing to a real addiction, because the heightened paranoia would be interesting to play), and he's ashamed of blowing money on speed that he should have sent home...but he needed to stay awake to work.

What's your path? Trace is a good-at-heart man who just got in over his head. Two people are dead. His prints are on file and they're all over that store. And he doesn't know it yet, but the gun that killed the clerk is in his pocket (see below). I suspect he'll probably go mad and kill someone out of paranoia who's really on his side, or perhaps OD trying to avoid sleep.

Set Discipline. Starts at 3. That was easy.

Choose Responses. When you break, you can either run or fight. I think Trace is more a runner (obviously), but it's not like he can't go nuts. So we'll check off 2 flight and one fight box.

Talents. I get an exhaustion talent. This is something that Trace could already do, but now he's supernaturally good at it. I choose hypersensitivity. Trace can hear your hair growing. He can smell aftershave from a block away, and he can read the print on a newspaper in the garbage from across a room (if this is too broad for my hypothetical GM, I'd narrow it to just hearing).

Now, I also get a madness talent. This is something that's impossible, a superpower that I get from invoking madness. For Trace, I'm tying this in to that gun that mysterious appear in his pockets. Trace can pull objects from anywhere, as long as he can picture them. That's good for pulling stuff from stores or old apartments or grabbing things that he doesn't want to carry. The bigger or more remote the object, the more madness dice I'd have to use.