Character Creation: Seven Leagues

Cael's napping, it's too bloody hot to do yardwork (and the grass isn't growing anyway, probably because it's so bloody hot). So, let's make a character!

Actually, I've already made one this week. Well, I mean, I made one on Tuesday, but then Thursday was chargen for Michelle's upcoming Dresden Files game. So my character there is a kinetomancer. He's a professor at Loyola University (the game is set in Baltimore, which is funny because we chose that city without realizing that the city used in the book as the example for City Creation is, in fact, Baltimore) who had a nervous breakdown after reading a book on the Music of the Spheres and checking some of the theorems put forth in that book against the cutting-edge astrophysics work he was doing. His Trouble Aspect is "The Math Doesn't Add Up", which I like. I think he'll either become a fully-fledged wizard or go nuts and start breaking things by fucking with kinetic energy. Either's good.

But never mind that now!

The Game: Seven Leagues: A Fantasy Roleplaying Game of Faerie
The Publisher: Malcontent Games [ETA: apparently defunct]
Degree of Familiarity: None. I got it in the Haiti bundle, and recently started reading. I hear good things, though.
Books Required: There is just the one, AFAIK.

 
Seven Leagues is the kind of game I would buy anyway (and indeed, I almost bought it at Origins until I remembered I had the pdf and hadn't read it). It's a faerie-tale game, appears to be very system-light, and is based heavily on concept. I know players that would have a hard time with this chargen, since a large part of it is "make something up."

But hey, let's get to it. I start with Aspect. My character's Aspect is a brief description of that character, sort of like a title. So: What kind of Faerie-tale creature would I like to play?

Well, I always liked the stories of the Black Shuck, the huge black dog of the English moors. So my Aspect is going to be Peat, Canine protector of travelers.

Next we do Virtues. These are stats, basically. Hand is all things physical, Heart is courage, empathy and charisma and Head is all things mental. I get 13 points to split up, nothing lower than 1 or higher than 7.

Well, I don't think Head is really the doggie's strong point. The books says that an animal's Head rating might be 1, so I'll make Peat's Head score 3. That leaves 10 points for his others, and I'll put 6 into Heart and 4 into Hand. He's physically capable, but it's where he gets to be brave and tenacious that Peat really shines.

Now we do Charms. Charms are magical powers, and they're a little like the More and Less Than Human bits of My Life With Master, in that they're magic with a very open interpretation. I get a number of Charms equal to my lowest Virtue, which is 3.

I want Peat to be sneaky and silent, so I'll choose Glides silent and unseen through the moors. I want him to know who's worthy of his protection, so he can smell a person's truth (be it true home, name, etc.). And, finally, Peat Can rally the beasts of the moors to his side by baying.

And now, Taboos. These are magical hindrances. I don't have to take any, but I can take up to three and get one extra Charm per two Taboos...except no point in taking three, then, because I'd still only get one Charm. OK, then.

I think Peat has a soft spot for women. Actually, he's easily fooled by beauty (that way it's not just a girl thing). And one more: Peat cannot set foot on ashes. Not sure why, just sounds Faerie to me.

Finally, I need a Legend. The Legend is a quick passage about Peat, in which I underline several Keywords, which then get worked into the game and help with Narrative Control (I haven't read the system fully yet, so I'm fuzzy on the details - hopefully I can talk someone into running this sometime). So here's Peat's Legend:

The black dog of the moors bays at the moon, and the creatures of the moorland come to him. "Here is a man lost," says the dog, "and so we must guide him on his way."

The other creatures balk at this. The birds of the moors twitter and complain, because the man shoots them and takes them for food. The stag whickers and raises his antlers, and the red fox sits quietly, guiltily, for he steals the man's chickens at night. But the black dog is resolute. "The man will be protected." And he bears his teeth and the animals flee, following the man, guarding him from harm.

Other beings stalk the man. The Redcap seeks to dip his hat in the man's blood. The Piskie and the Will-o-the-wisp seek to lead him astray. Other fae might wish to seduce or change him. The black dog walks next to him, unseen, unheard, and his snarls frighten away these creatures. The other animals of the forest take care not to hurt the man or lead him astray, but they have no truck with the magical beings of the moors. That burden of protection belongs to the black dog alone.

So there ya go. I see Peat as a kind of guardian angel, and the conflicts he'll get into will almost certainly involve being used by someone abusing that tendency. 

Character Creation: Witch Hunter: The Invisible World

We found a witch! May we make a character? 

The Game: Witch Hunter: The Invisible World
The Publisher: Paradigm Concepts
Degree of Familiarity: None. I've read the book, which I traded for because I'd heard good things.
Books Required: Just the core, though supplements exist.

 
OK, I really have to stop letting months go by between reading the book and making a character. Anyway, Witch Hunter totally looks like a game I'd enjoy, and I'm sad I haven't gotten to play it. It's billed as swashbuckling/horror, set in the 17th Century in the Colonies...but unlike Colonial Gothic, this has more over-the-top action (and an editor).

So, again, it's been a while since I read it, and games tend to fall out of my brain like water through a duck (right?) when I'm not actually playing them, just because I read so many. But, looking it over now, I remember a bit...

See, back in the day (way back), King Solomon tried to banish all evil from the world. But just as the Great Seal was about to clap for a fish (right?), Solomon realized that it wasn't really going to protect mankind, so he let a trickle of magic through, enough to hopefully empower mankind. Orders are formed, and a few thousand years later a Jew gets nailed to a piece of wood for being all up in Rome's bweez-nass and a fish cult forms around him, but in this RPG, his followers actually have some magical ass-kicking going on.

Ahem. What I really enjoyed about this book was the description of the world. It's not until later in the book, unfortunately, but when I got to that chapter, the world of Witch Hunter (almost typed "switch hunter," which is a very different sort of game) really came alive for me. I got a bunch of ideas for running this game off the descriptions of what's going on in various countries, and it was dense enough that it took me a few nights to get through because I didn't want to skim it. The magic also looked interesting here.

OK, we start with Character Concept. Why not?

You know, it's about two centuries out of period, but what I find inspiring me is the movie Ravenous. The lonely outpost that's only busy during the summer, exposed and dangerous during the winter...it's not exactly the right place for swashbuckling, but as a starting point, it's not bad. I see my character as someone who maybe grew up in a place like that, raised by a very small band of soldiers or other tough people. And then one day something wiped them the hell out, but spared him. For him, magic and the supernatural don't hold any mysticism, and when Lightbringers and other folks perform magic using ritual and chanting and formulae, he just scoffs into his beard (oh, his beard come so fat). For him, the Invisible World is blood and gristle and sucked marrow, and we damn well should be afraid of the dark.

Next, I'm asked to consider Culture and Ethnicity. Hmm. I think he's a colonial child. The first white explorer in Michigan (I love the woods of Northern Michigan) was a French dude named Étienne Brûlé. He shows up in Michigan in 1620, but the first permanent European settlement doesn't happen until 1668, which is right about the time this game is set. So let's say that there was an outpost in what is now northern Michigan in the mid 1600s, formed by Brûlé and company. Handful of French pioneers, soldiers and explorers settled on South Manitou island (and here we take leave of history, but fuckit). The settlers were there until 1648, when my character was a lad of 10, and the rest of the colony was destroyed by something. A French ship found him, the only survivor, mad, starved and freezing. He recovered, and became a Witch Hunter. Neat! I like him already.

OK, now I consider Religion. I think he's nominally Catholic (of French descent, after all), but isn't terribly devout anymore. Rather, he believes in God. He just doesn't think God so much answers prayers as waits to judge our actions. Praying is a fool's gambit. Action is what matters, and if one's actions are in error but undertaking in earnest, well, surely God recognizes that.

Background. This codifies and puts numbers to the history I just made up for my character. Hang on a sec. OK, Explorer and Scout both look good, but really, it's Settler that sums up this guy's early life. That gives me a quality called Grit, which lets me re-roll a failed action roll once per day, at a +2 bonus. Nifty. It also gives me some background skills, but I'm not sure how that works so I'll move on for now.

Catalyst. Again, putting into game terms how I got my start. "The Sole Survivor" is pretty much exactly what I described, so there ya go.

Abilities. This is a dice pool system that looks a lot like White Wolf; roll the pool of d10s and count the 7s-or-better. I start with a score of 2 in all nine of the Abilities, and I get 100 points to buy scores (it's not 1-for-1, I think...nope, there's a chart). Let's do this.

Physical Abilities include Strength, Agility and Toughness. I want this guy to be good across the board in physicals, if possible. Strength 3 is good, and only costs me 10. Agility 2 is fine for me. Toughness I want higher; let's make it 4. I've spent 40 points.

Mental Abilities are Education, Reason and Will. Well, Education obviously isn't my strong point. Education 1 posits that I was raised by wolves or just in an environment so sheltered I don't have an idea how the world really works. I think that's not inappropriate (and I'd like the extra ten points), so I'll bump it down to 1. I've effectively spent 30 points. Reason, though, is using intellect and lateral thinking, and I really like that that's separate from Education. Anyway, I'll spend 10 and bump that to 3. Will is discipline and resisting temptation, so let's spend 10 more and bump that to 3.

Spiritual Abilities are Courage, Intuition and Personality. I have to put Courage to at least 3 because I'm a Settler, but that's fine. I have 50 points left. Huzzah. I'll spend 10 to up Courage to 3, but I think that's as high as I want it. Really, I want Intuition at 4, which costs 30. That puts me at 90 spent, total. Personality 3 sounds good, making me roughly average at communication. So there ya have it.

Health: I mark off Health circles based on my Toughness. Have a look at the sheet, it's there.

Defense: The ability to evade and shrug off attacks. It's the average of my Agility and Toughness, which is 3.

Skills. OK, this makes sense, but there are steps. I get background skills, which are already set, and then I get elective skills, which are assigned within categories. So let's start with the background. I get Animal Care 1, Construct 1, Drive 1, Endurance 1, Hand-to-Hand 1 and Survival 1. Those skills are set (and I'll need to pick an area of expertise for Construct).

And then I get one point to put into a Fighting Skill, one into an Interaction Skill, two into Movement, 4 into Professional and 2 into Reaction. OK, let's have a look.

As much as I'd love to take Firearms, it's based on Agility and guns aren't really that accurate or reliable anyway. And besides, if you know me, you know I'm a goob for thrown weapons. My fighting point goes into Thrown.

My Interaction Skill goes into Command. I picture him being the sort of guy who takes control of an operation once the "leaders" have given it over to the dudes on the ground who know how to kill things.

I get two in Movement. I put one into Swim (I grew up on an island) and one into Climb (which has trees).

4 into Professional. One into Disable (which includes lockpicking). One into Occult (which is all I can put there because my Education is only 1). One into Track, and one more into Survival.

Finally, I get 2 in Reaction. One each in Notice and Resolve, I think.

So, to recap:

Animal Care 1
Climb 1
Command 1
Construct 1
Disable 1
Drive 1
Endurance 1
Hand-to-Hand 1
Notice 1
Occult 1
Resolve 1
Survival 2
Swim 1
Thrown 1
Track 1

Talents. Special abilities, dontchaknow. I begin with "at least three," whatever that means. Oh, I see. I can take 4 basic talents or two basic and one greater. Can't take Heroic talents, evidently. Well, let's have a look.

So, I actually don't have the requirements for a lot of these. I think I'll take 2 basic and one greater. For my basics, I take Cheat (I can impose a -1 on my opponent in a contested roll) and It's Just a Scratch (I make an Endurance check to ignore injury penalties), and for my greater talent I take Danger Sense (adds +1 Notice and +2 Reflexes).

Finishing Touches. Last bits.

Hero Points let me influence die rolls, but I don't seem to get any at chargen so it's moot.

True Faith points let me cast spells and counter magic. I don't see my guy as a spell caster, even with Faith-magic, but I do see him using that Faith to banish monsters. I start with 1 point.

Damnation is the counter to True Faith, obviously. I don't start with any.

Sins and Virtues. These are meant to be personality hooks for the character, much like Virtue and Vice in NWoD, I think.

For my Sin, I'll pick Despairing. It'd be easy to go with Vengeful, but I don't think that's this guy's problem. I think he feels that the Adversary is really more powerful here on Earth and if God gives a shit, He's not letting us know. I figure this guy spends time brooding, and thinks we're all for the chop eventually.

For Virtue, I'll pick Humble. He doesn't take credit. He thinks there's a certain righteousness in doing what needs done for its own sake.

Oh, you know, in all of this I completely forgot about Order. The Orders are, well, the splats. They're groups of Witch Hunters bonded by faith, goals or tactics. Fortunately, there's one that perfectly fits this character: The Stalkers of the Unseen Hunt. They go out into the wastes and the wilderness and kill the monsters they find, and don't so much think they'll win in the long run, but maybe humanity will. I get a bonus Basic and Greater Talent from a list, and I can ignore pre-requisites, which is cool. I pick Attack Focus and pick Hatchet, which reduces the complexity of a throwing hatchet by one (effectively giving me a +1). I also pick...ooh, do I want to aim my throwing axes really well or see better in the dark? I'll be Bullseye, I think. I pick Marksman, again for Thrown.

OK, so I just need a name. Huh, another Frenchie. I name this guy Etienne (after the colonist) Lefevre (his family were smiths, going back to France). I picture him as late 30s, grizzled, big ol' beard, carries around several throwing axes that he sharpens when he's nervous. Refuses to eat strongly spiced food, for fear the smell will linger and give him away to lurking beasts. He's seen it happen.