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.