Character Creation: Asylum

You know, the kind the lunatics are running. 

The Game: Asylum
The publisher: Clockworks, now apparently defunct
Degree of familiarity: None. I bought it on the cheap at GenCon, largely because it's a game about insanity that uses marbles for the mechanic. I've since read it.
Books Required: Just the core.

 
Asylum is a dystopian-future RPG, in which a weird breed of algae spread into the atmosphere and blotted out the sun. In addition to killing most of the plant and animal life on Earth, it drove people crazy. Cut off from the sun, people developed mental illness at unprecedented rates, until large cities became nothing more than Wards for them. Now, in the year...uh, hang on...2163, the lunatics pretty much run the joint. There are Wardens and Orderlies (an aside, because this is cool: when the Orderlies are coming, it's common to ask, "Left or right?" because they carry tranq guns in their left hands and guns with live ammo in their right), and there's perhaps an organization over it all, but that doesn't help you. You can wander the wastelands, scavenge for stuff to trade (bullets are currency, as are meds), you can hang in the Lounge and gamble, or you can try and avoid the snakes that have evolved deadly poison in order to hunt and eat people. Oh, and these snakes are four feet long.

Wait, what?

OK, some amusing herpetology aside, the game has some interesting promise. All characters are crazy, and you can have Disorders and Aberrations. I have some quibbles with the disorders as presented, not least of which because autism is presented as an Aberration when autism is a) not a mental illness and b) not really much like what's presented in the book, but the book was always released in 1996, so I'll forgive an interpretation of the disorder that's consistent with what was known (or believed) at the time. At least all autistic people aren't Rain Man in this game.

The book reads as a product of its time; this was around the same time that Vampire: The Masquerade and the other early WoD games were coming onto the scene, and, like Shattered Dreams, feels like a close cousin to a White Wolf game (the author, Aaron Rosenberg, went on to do some work for Vampire in fact, including Sins of the Blood, to which I also contributed).

Anyway, let's do this. Actually, I'm going to go get a drink, and a bag of dice that I can use for marbles. OK, got 'em. Incidentally, the way this works is that each color of marble (black, white, blue, red, green) corresponds to a number, 1 to 5. So you draw two marbles and they add to relevant stats, non unlike Edge of Midnight, which does the same thing only with dice. Anyway, draws are read as "white, white" (the best possible), "blue, red", that kind of thing.

OK, first step is Conception (huh-huh). I'm asked to determine an Occupation, if I want one. Occupation keep you sane (ish), so I think I'll pick one. I want my character to be an Almanac. Almanacs are news fonts, but since there's really no print anymore (and few people are literate anyway), they just memorize everything and try to stay up to date on what's going on around them.

Ooh, you know what this game doesn't address? Children. That's probably good, but seriously, where do new Inmates come from? Yeah, people probably breed, but is there a Children's Ward out there somewhat? I'm guessing yes, because otherwise children probably wouldn't survive very long in this wasted world. Anyway, just a random thought.

So, Almanac. So much of how I interpret this character is going to depend on his mental illness, so let's draw (using dice in my desk drawer) for my Disorder. I draw black, red which gives Dissociative Identity Disorder. Oh, look, it's the Internet's second most-popular self-diagnosis. The way the book describes this is for each personality to be played by a different player. Yeah, no thanks. I think I'll exercise my right of refusal on Disorder (which the book makes a point of saying I have), because I'm not in the slightest bit enthused about playing multiple personalities.

OK, take two. A draw of white, white gives me Compulsive. Much better. Compulsive means that my character takes a certain, repetitive action at least every ten minutes. In my case, since he's an Almanac, I think it's related to checking the space that he's in. Someone might want to know how big this room is, after all, so he paces it out. If he's outside, he draws a circle on the ground so he can find this spot later, or otherwise makes landmarks. If asked, he does this shit because "someone might want to know."

Now I draw an Aberration. The book makes a point of saying that Aberrations cannot be chosen (Disorders can be, but I didn't have one that I really liked). Since I'm starting with an Occupation, though, I don't actually start with an Aberration; I'm drawing for a latent one, as it were. I draw Dependent, and that fits. If it comes into play and gets bad, my character can't make decisions on his own. He becomes so paralyzed by the notion of having to remember and catalog everything around him that he can't do anything.

Next comes figuring out my Vitals. I can either take a set pool of 11 points or draw for it. Let's draw for it, why the fuck not? I draw white, white, red, blue, which translates to scores of 5, 5, 4, 2, respectively. 16 in total, lots better than 11.

I have four Vitals: Lucidity, Fluidity, Aura and Zeal. Well, Lucidity is how well my character remembers and perceives the world around him, so as an Almanac that needs to be 5. Fluidity is how quickly I act and react; also a strength for him, I think (until he goes Dependent), so we'll put the other 5 there. Aura is social acuity and sexfulness, and that 2 has to go somewhere. Personally, I like that he's not really likable; getting info out of him requires putting up with his habit of measuring you first, in case anyone asks. And, finally, Zeal. Physical prowess and endurance. That gives me 4, which is good; this guy isn't manic but he is energetic.

Zeal determines Movement (8) and Resistance (varies by body part), but you can't raise Vitals during chargen, so that's done, then. And on to Skills.

I get Physical Skills equal to my Zeal (4), Mental equal to Lucidity (5) and Occupational equal to Fluidity (5). So I'm pretty skilled, by compare. Oh, and I get 2 free Skills points to throw anywhere. Because I have an Occupation, I can have two Skills at three and one at four, but they have to be Required or Recommended for my Occupation. So let's see what those Skills are.

OK, fail. Almanac lists "Deduction" as a Required Skill, but as far as I can tell, that's the only place that Skill appears in this book. Sure ain't in the Skill section. Argh. OK, that leaves Awareness as my only Required Skill, and Bargain, Psychoanalysis and Stealth as Recommended. I get a free point of Firearms, because everyone does. Holy shit, Bargain doesn't appear in the Skill section, either. WTF, Aaron?

Well, I jot down those Skills (the ones that exist), and Academia (it's restricted, but it makes sense for an Almanac), Literacy, Melee Combat, Electrician, Carpentry and Medicine.

Occupational: I'll put two into Electrician and Carpentry, and one into Medicine. These are Skills that he's learned mostly be observation and then repetition, meaning his might freak out if he finds an electrical system he hasn't seen before.

Physical: I'll leave Firearms where it is and put two each into Melee Combat and Stealth.

Mental: I'll put four into Awareness, and then one each into Psychoanalysis, Literacy and Academia. I'm pretty darned observant, which is fitting.

Next, Quirks, Faults, Knacks and Status. I get four points, but Quirks cost 4, Knacks cost 2, and Status costs 4. But, of course, Faults give me 2 each, and negative Status gives me 4. Hmm. Let's check it out.

OK, bad game design ahoy. Quirks don't have any mechanical effect. Get that? They're more expensive than Knacks, which do, but they don't actually do anything. They're things like Sadism, Hypochondriac...more mental foibles. Seriously, who wants to pay for that?

Knacks, OTOH, do stuff...but there's a draw table associated with them and Defects, which I think I'll ignore. Let's look at Faults and see if I want any. No, they all suck. Negative Status? Oh, hey, you can take Parent, meaning you have a kid around. First time I've seen kids mentioned. I don't see anything there I like. I can take two Knacks, then.

Well, let's take Direction Sense - he always knows where he's been. I'll also buy Quick Draw, allowing him to draw a weapon and attack in one action. I like the notion that he can snap quickly and have the skill to back it up.

Next, Attitude. Interestingly, the book says that deciding a personality should be the last thing you do, since personality is going to be informed by all the other choices you've made in chargen. I can dig that, though I think it can work the other way, too. Of the ones listed (though I could, of course, make one up), I like Team Player.

Thinking about personality before, he's obsessed with the notion that someone might ask him something that he can't remember or answer. He does OK as an Almanac (he's not violent by inclination, for one thing - sucks when you go to ask an Almanac something and he fucking stabs you), but he's a little sycophantic for some people's tastes. His favorite phrase is "if anyone asks." Someone finally asked him, "So, who's this 'Anyone' guy?" And my character, not understanding, replied, "Well...we're all anyone. I'm Anyone." The name stuck.

I can have gear as appropriate to what I'd need, but you know how I feel about shopping. I'll draw and have...four bullets at the start (bullets are currency). He doesn't carry a gun, but does have a makeshift knife. He's got a pair of nice boots that he took off a dead guy, and one single glove that he reverses and wears on either hand as mood takes him.