Character Creation: Labyrinths & Lycanthropes

Yay! Chargen!

The Game: Labyrinths and Lycanthropes
The Publisher: Prince of Darkness Games
Degree of Familiarity: None. Just cracked open the pdf and started reading.
Books Required: Just the one.

I got this game through the Haiti bundle a few years back (no, I'm nowhere near done with that bundle). Turns out this publisher is also responsible for a couple of the other games in the bundle, but I haven't done them yet (Piledrivers and Powerbombs and Contenders). Anyway, I started reading the intro fiction for this game:

The halfling crept nimbly through the shadows, through a darkness that managed to be both eerie and oozing. He skipped from one stony outcrop to the next, displaying incredible dexterity. A stray shaft of moonlight briefly illuminated the small humanoid as he lithely perched on a rock. His poise could only be described as erudite, or alert at a push. Until he fell off.

Reading the rest, the fiction is deliberately that bad. The game is billed as "old school D&D on vodka and Redbull." I can get behind that. It's kind of board-gamey, but really it's more like someone took newer indie games (which, as you know, I love) and applied a balls-out, beer-n-pretzels aesthetic. Looks kind of cool.

The game is played with cards, not dice (which, again, I can get with). To make a character, I need a name and a fantasy concept. I can be a human, elf, dwarf, whatever, but I can also make up a race ("lesser flan elemental wolf-cat hybrid" is listed as an example). So let's see. I think if I was picking a fantasy trope to parody, I'd want to parody the "mysterious stranger" one. Like, "lone badass." Hrm. I think that makes me human, but I think that humans are really boring. That's why I'm so mysterious. Ooooh. My character's name is...Solo. No, what, that's too derivative. Sol. Sol the Wanderer. Perfect.

I start at level 3, and I can put levels into Ninja, Mage or Fighter. I hate Ninja, but I think being sneaky is part and parcel to this guy. In fact, I think I'll just spread the levels out evenly. Oh, wait, that'll leave me with too few points. Eh.

Oh, actually, it looks like I can put my points anywhere, even if I don't have levels there. Odd. Anyway, fuck magic. I'll put two levels in Fighter, one in Ninja, and spread my 6 points (2 per level) out thusly:

Hack n Slash 1
Shoot 2
Parry 1
Sneak 1
Dash 1

I get two points of equipment that gives me a boost to whatever Skills I want. Hmm. OK, Sol has some soft, gnome-skin boots that give him +1 Sneak, and a set of cool bracers and gloves good for +1 Parry.

I pick a Motivation for going off to pillage. While the given ones are good (Vengeance, Rescue, etc.) I think I want "Destiny." Sol claims that its his destiny to kill monsters and take their stuff. This is kind of like Righteousness, but more mysterious. OOOooooOOOOh.

I get a single Gimmick for Sol. I think I'll take "Sullen and brooding," kind of like Aragorn crossed with Neo with a dash of the guy The Rock played in The Rundown.

And that's it for chargen. Reading further, you get to build your own fantasy kingdom and populate it with weirdness and monsters to kill! The example map (Exampleonia) includes such topographical features as the Yore Maw and the Forest of Gump. I'm totally running this. Holy shit.