Character Creation: Beast Hunters

Be vewy vewy quiet. I'm hunting...beasts, I guess.

The Game: Beast Hunters
The Publisher: Berengad Games
Degree of Familiarity: None. Just read it.
Books Required: Just the one.

 

OK, so, this is an indie game. Now, reading it, it looks really cool. There's a nifty backstory about a war between mages, how magic basically exploded one night, and that freed all the magical beasts that were once bound for service and warped people and animals into critters. There's some good setting for the Chel'quiri (which are the hunters you play), and then the system is designed around conflict and resolution. All good so far. Doesn't look like long-term campaign material, but so what?

Two niggles I have with the game. First, it's designed for two players, basically a player and a GM. I don't know how well it would work to alter it for multiple players, but I can't imagine it would be too hard. I just think it's an odd choice for an RPG, but then, I've never had trouble getting players.

But the other thing is something I've said before about indie games. It gets a little...well, fruity at times. Artsy-fartsy. Vox does it and manages to sound kind of cool at times, while Dark Aeons tries and fails. But Beast Hunters wants you to salute in when you play (no, really, like a special handshake, which the book gravely assures us is "not optional"). I dunno, I'm all for keeping the play experience intact, but c'mon. It's a game.

Anyway, I was really grooving on the setting until I got to the salute and the two-player thing, and then it kind of lost me. I might still give it a shot, but I'd want to find a fix that lets me have more players.

Oh, wait, now that I read a little more, it has rules for multiple hunters. OK, then.

So let's do this!

Name: OK, the book tells me that hard sounds like /k/ and /kw/ and /ch/ are common in this language. I imagine there are probably phonemes that employ different forms of affricates and velar...I'll stop. Anyway, I'll name my hunter T'kech, which has a bunch of those sounds and an apostrophe!

Hunter: That's me, which seems a little backwards, but whatever.

Initiative: I enter 1 in each slot. OK.

Your Parents: I get three traits from my parents. These are kind of like traits in Dogs in the Vineyard, in that you get more coolness if you say "Mom trained me to be strong" than just "strong."

OK, so I need to think concept a little. My inclination is always to make jumpy/flippy/throwy characters. But I haven't done a thrower in a while. I also watched Brotherhood of the Wolf last night, which seems appropriate for this, so I don't mind taking inspiration there. The Chel'quiri don't use steel unless they take it from fallen foes, then their society is matriarchal. Ooh, how about this? My mother wasn't crazy about having a son, and kind of left T'kech to forage rather than feeding him properly. He learned, though, that you can always find something to eat or use if you look hard enough. T'kech got good at finding and making useful tools. So I'll take "I Refused to Starve" as a mental defensive trait. I'll take "Nothing is Out of Reach" for physical offensive, and "My Sisters Taught me to Dodge" as physical defensive.

I also get two resources from my folks. I'll take "Clever Like My Dead Father" (I figure he was too smart for his own good and it got him killed) as mental offensive, and "Mother's Castoffs" - mom gave me all the bits of metal she took from her dead foes. That's physical offensive.

Now I raise an initiative by one - I'll raise mental. And then I add a light and medium damage box to the area in which my parents influenced me most. Hmm. I figure mental, really. T'kech survived by being smart, not physically tough.

Your Tribe: I get two traits and two resources from my tribe (or "nadan" - gotta say, reading this book makes me think of this strip). I need to name said tribe and think about what it was like to grow up with them.

Well, all of these guys are nomadic. I'm going to say that mom was a Beast Hunter, but that it's otherwise kind of uncommon in my tribe. Other nadans call us the "Dust People" because we've got this weird dusty-tan complexion and oddly gray hair, and because we bury our dead, rather than burning them (I'm just making shit up here). When T'kech got called up to be a Beast Hunter, it shocked the tribe, but it also elevated their opinion of me - before that, the question was "When's that T'kech kid gonna starve already? He keeps eating roots!"

So I'll take "Respect the Dead" as a social defensive trait, "Hunter's Patience" as a physical offensive trait, "Newfound Respect" as a social defensive resource and "Expert Warrior Sisters" as a physical defensive resource.

I'll add a point to physical initiative here, and a light damage box to social.

Your Enemies: Oooooh. Fun. OK, I get three traits and one resource. The book recommends that any enemies I name here are still a problem, and I'm fine with that. I think I've got a half-brother named Jejs (same father) who blames my mother for his father's death. Mom didn't kill dad, dad died because he figured he could outwit a rival tribe and he didn't bank on them being quite as fast as they were (the plan would have worked, but for dad's gimpy ankle, but that's not the way Jejs saw it). So I'll take "Jejs Wants Me Dead" as a social defensive trait - makes me paranoid.

I'll take "Cursed Blood of Kichea" as a social offensive trait. Kichea is my mother, and she's a badass enough that she's got some enemies. There are whole nadans that spit on the ground when they mention her, in fact.

I'll take "Never Forget a Slight" as my third trait (social offensive). I might be able to stab ya now, but I'll sure do it tomorrow.

And then I get a resource. Hmm. I took a weapon from an enemy that I killed - well, my sister really hit him, but I finished him off! "Enemy's Green Blade," pretty obviously physical offensive.

And then I get another initiative boost. Mental, I think. And I'll a light damage box to Mental, too.

Beast Hunter Training: This recommends I pick a weapon if I haven't, but I have that green blade. So I'll take "Expert Trapper" as a mental offensive trait. I'll take "Poisons Don't Harm Me" as a physical defensive (side-effect of my random diet). And, finally, "I Won't Die Like My Father" as a mental offensive - I don't want to miss the little details like dad did. Oh, wait, damn. I only get two traits here, not three. Well, I'll use the poison thing as a resource, and call it "Dried Herbs and Antidotes." Same idea.

OK, now I get another initiative point. Let's say...Physical. Also I get a light and medium damage box, so I'll put the medium into Mental and the light into Physical.

Assign Numbers: Now I assign numbers to my traits. I get two +3, four +2 and four +1. Hmm. Let's do this:

Nothing is Out of Reach +3
Hunter's Patience +2
Cursed Blood of Kichea +1
Never Forget a Slight +2
Expert Trapper +3
I Won't Die Like My Father +2
My Sisters Taught Me to Dodge +2
I Refused to Starve +1
Respect the Dead +1
Jejs Wants me Dead +1

Same idea for resources:

Clever Like My Dead Father +3
Mom's Castoffs +1
Enemy's Green Blade +2
Newfound Respect +1
Expert Warrior Sisters +1
Dried Herbs & Antidotes +2

And that's it, really. I don't get any Tattoos because I haven't done my first real Beast Hunt (that would be my first game). So T'kech is all ready to go trap him a Beast!