Character Creation: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying

Four months is a long time, but that's not quite a Smiths quote.

The Game: Marvel Heroic Roleplaying
The Publisher Margaret Weis Productions
Degree of Familiarity: Getting better. I'm running it currently and it's a lot of fun.
Books Required: Just the one.

So, I have, of course a lot of supers games, and even one from Marvel. This one, though, is nice in that you assemble your dice pool by looking down the sheet. You're usually rolling against an opponent, but sometimes against the doom pool, which grows as shit gets real. This is one of those systems that doesn't work for loosey-goosey, fake-the-system GMs. Like NWoD, FATE and curse the darkness, it's a game that only works when you let it.

But here's the thing I don't dig: There's no chargen system. It's designed for playing existing Marvel characters, which is balls. Who wants to play other people's characters? (I know some people do, I've just never understood the fascination.)

So what I'm gonna do is recreate the first character I remember making when I picked up the old TSR Marvel game. I'm doing this from memory, and the memory is...geez, 27 years old at this point? (OMG. I have literally been running games long than some of my gamers have been alive.)

OK, so what do I remember? His name was Shapeshifter. He was a mutant. He had a kickass black outfit with red accents. He had multiple limbs (yeah, weird, I rolled him up randomly), he could turn invisible, and I'm sure he had other shape-shifty powers, too. I don't for the life of me remember his real name, so let's call him Miles Farley. Seems a moderately dorky name.

That's a really weird power set. Let's work it! I'll make up the details I don't remember.

Affiliation: In the game, you roll an Affiliation die based on whether you're solo, with a buddy, or on a team. I think Shapeshifter would work best with a buddy. He's not trusting enough to be a true team player, but his powers are good support. I'll take Solo d8, Buddy d10, Team d6.

Distinctions: I get three of these, and they need to be potentially a help or hindrance. OK, well. As I recall, Shapeshifter manifested his powers when he was young and awkward and tweeny (much like me when I rolled him up), but I played him as an adult. So I'll split the difference and say he's in high school now, and give him the Distinction: High School Nobody.

For my next one, I'll need to make something up, because I'm drawing a blank. We'll say Shapeshifter is really self-conscious about his powers (the extra limbs, especially) so I'll take Desperate to Fit In.

Finally, since I need something that ties into my super-identity a little more, I'll take Hero or Freak?

OK, now Power Sets! I think I need two, because there's not a Power Set for "extra limbs" specifically. I'll take "Extra Limbs" as one set and "Unstable Form" as my other one.

For "Extra Limbs," I want Enhanced Strength d8 and Climbing d6 (he can use his extra hands to grab hold and steady himself). For SFX, I'll take Afflict (for Grappling). I'll also take the Limit for being a mutant (basically I'm vulnerable to certain attacks because I'm a mutie).

So then my Unstable Form set. I take Invisibility d10 (I want to be good at that) and Stretching d8 (allowing him to reach down an elevator shaft). I debate taking Shapeshifting, but it really only lets me mimic people unless I take it at d12, which I don't think is appropriate. Hmm. OK, well, how about we take it at d8 so I can hide my arms, and then I'll play with SFX and Limit.

I want Shapeshifter to be able to knock people back with his arms, and I think the Extra Arms combined with Stretching means he can hit multiple people at once, so I'll take Area Attack. I like Counterattack, too.

But I want a Limit to reflect Shapeshifter's low self-confidence, so I'll make one up. I'll say he's Freakish. I'll just use the system for Uncontrollable; same idea. His powers can go a little bonkers sometimes, or people just make fun of the arms.

OK, now Specialities, which are like skills. You only use them if you're really badass at something. I would like to take Combat Expert, but I don't see him being that good at combat. I will take Covert at Expert (he's stealthy as hell) and, what the hell, Acrobatics at Expert.

And finally, Milestones. These are kind of plot progressions for my character. I know I want one to be "Who Am I, Really?" He's suffering from an identity crisis because he's ashamed of who and what he is. So we'll say

• Gain 1XP when someone makes anti-mutant jokes or rhetoric around you.
  
• Gain 3XP when you choose not to accept credit (or blame) for heroic actions (that is, I bugger off invisible).
  
• Gain 10XP when you come out to your family as a mutant.
  

Good, that's one. Need one more. Hmm. I think it'd be fun to play with the notion that his powers haven't really solidified yet. How about "This Isn't My Final Form?"

• Gain 1XP when you use the Freakish Limit in an action scene.
  
• Gain 3XP when you use Shapeshifting to change your body in a new way.
  
• Gain 10XP when you alter a Power or Limit.

And that's me done! 

GenCon 2012: GM's Report Card

I am recently returned from GenCon Indy, so again, I pop my memory card into the computer, upload some photos, and share my experiences to all and sundry!

So, this particular GenCon was kind of a special one anyway. It was the premier of curse the darkness, the first roleplaying game from our new company, Play Attention Games. We weren't sure that we'd have the books there, but they did get delivered, in enough time to sell a few and hand them out to our Kickstarter backers that made the show. So that was nice.

Let me back up. We left Cleveland on Wednesday, my birthday. I was recovering from a god-awful cold (really felt more like a flu, but it went away too quickly for that), and so I kind of felt like hell. Michelle was, as you may know, an Industry Insider Gust of Honor, which meant she did a bunch of panels for them and got a free badge (but they didn't even give the panelists water at their panels. Really, guys?). But that meant we were both really busy all con, and Wednesday was the only day that things were really chill. (It was also my birthday.)

So we got there, and we checked in to the JW Marriott, which I recommend. Nice place. Check the view:

Blue, da-ba-di-da-ba-die.

We got checked in, and then headed over to the convention center to get our badges. This is what GenCon looks like on Wednesday.

Kind of empty.

Except that we then discovered that the line to pick up badges that had been preordered wrapped around the goddamned block.

Yeah, should've had them shipped.

We got the badges. There were some slight issues; I think the girl that was looking for my badge was not familiar with the convention that "Mc" tends to come before "Ma" in alphabetized lists, because it took her a really long time to find me. And then they gave me hassles about giving us the boys' badges, because they didn't have IDs to show (duh, they're kids). But we finally got it sorted. So we left from there and went to get dinner. We decided on Mikado's, because noodles and broth sounded good to me.

Mikado is only open to vampires, apparently. GET IT?

So we ate, and then walked back through the convention center toward the hotel. We saw Cardhalla being constructed:

There's an "after" picture later, too.

And then back to the hotel for sleeeeeep.

Next morning, the boys rolled out of bed and immediately turned on the Xbox.

NO ONE UNDERSTANDS MEEEEE.

No, screw that! This is GenCon! Time to go to the dealer's room! So they got dressed:

Gamer funk protection?

 ...and headed over to the convention center again, carrying a box of t-shirts.

This is what GenCon looks like on not-Wednesday.

We got to the booth eventually. Michelle was chipper.

Chipper!

Still chipper! Those blue things are curse the darkness shirts.

At the booth, we had lots of people come up asking for punches in their Cheese Weasel punch cards, including a member of the Miskatonic Cheerleading Squad.

Go pods!

 As I wandered out of the dealer's room to run my first game of curse the darkness, I saw a really tall Wookie.

ARRARHRHGHNN.

 The first game turned out to be set in the convention center. The city was burning, and one of the community's people, someone skilled at firefighting, had vanished. The other characters found him baking on a rooftop and saved his life. I did not, however, snap any pictures.

So after that, we went to the Games on Demand rooms. Now, I'm totally volunteering to do this next year. It's a great system, folks get to play the games that they want, and it really showcases the strengths of low- or no-prep RPGs like Fiasco, Monsterhearts, Apocalypse World and curse the darkness. We played Apocalypse World, which was a lot of fun. I was a sex-club owner in a drowned city (Seattle; my club was in the space needle).

Somewhere in here, too, I got the emailed from Drive Thru RPG saying that my books had been shipped, and would arrive Friday! I was pretty damned elated. I may have squealed. Anyway.

Trevis, our maniacal GM.

The game was only two hours long, but we got a really good sense of it. Like TechNoir, which I had the pleasure of playing at Origins, this game starts you off with an archetype character, which you can then customize. It also makes a point of defining the relationships and connections between characters, and asks which character is making trouble for the guy running things. I was the guy running things (the club owner), and one of the other players was playing a psychic who wanted to either run my club or have a bigger piece of the pie. The game centered around getting the club up and running again, and ended with us taking someone hostage and fleeing back to the club. It probably would have been much bloodier if we'd had time to pursue it.

The GM, thrust into running this as all GoD GMs are, kept pace, threw complications at us and (and this I truly appreciate) asked us to supply details and backstory about NPCs. It was a lot of fun, and I was sad to learn that the game isn't available for purchase yet. My Grade: A.

And then I had a pickup game of curse the darkness. In this game, the characters were outside of Vegas and had to find out why their power went out. They biked to Hoover Dam and found some folks trying to blow it up, but they all went through a Removal Challenge together and all survived, and made the essential choice (seriously, everyone draws the same suit in a six-player Challenge? That's mathematically unlikely). Good time was had by all, however.

So then sleep. Next morning, I went down to play Four Colors Al Fresco.

This game uses d16s, which is weird.

 Now, I'd played this game a bunch of years ago at Origins. The system is wonky, but fun, and the setting is awesome. It's a supers game set in an alternate Renaissance Italy. Our group was a bunch of Omegas who were socially unacceptable - my character was Ozymandius, King of Kings (Deceased), a Mum-Ra kind of character. The other characters included a boy who cares for a goose that can lay golden (among other types) eggs; a necromancer who can only animate the bodies of fish; Princess Zoe, Midas' daughter, made of living gold; Swanmay, a warrior woman with power over birds; and Lazarus of Bethany, the man raised up from the dead by Jesus. Together, we were just too weird for polite society, and so eked out a living in the mountains.

I like this starting point, and our characters were wacky but had enough chemistry to be fun to play. And then the game was about a bear-demon that was killing people. It was fun, it just felt a little...pedestrian. I had to leave early because I needed to go pick up the books, so it's possible I missed something important. With that in mind: My Grade: I

After that game, I got the books and then we were going to play Advanced Dimensional Green Ninja-Educational Preparatory Super-Elementary Fortress 555 (hell yeah, I c/p'd that ). But that's a very hyperkinetic, random game and Michelle and I weren't feeling up for it. We rested a while instead, and then wound up going to dinner with some friends. I wound up bailing early. I felt like absolute shit for some reason, and I didn't want to relapse into sickness. I did see a couple of interesting things, though.

A living statue.

An unliving barista.

Cardhalla, now complete.

 Next day! Saturday! I had a 10AM game of curse the darkness to run, so I did that. That game was a lot of fun. The characters were coffee growers in Hawai'i, and were searching for their store of coffee that had vanished overnight. What was interesting, though, was that this group really latched on to the notion of breaking the rules, to the point that they would hand me Between Points when they referred to "our coffee" rather than "the coffee." More deaths this time around, very cool group of people.

So from there, I went to the booth and spent the afternoon there handing out copies of curse the darkness to backers. It was closing time before I got to leave, and Michelle and I got dinner at a food truck.

HELL YEAH SHRIMP PO BOY.

Food trucks are awesome!

Ya! Monsters!

And then back to the JW for our game of Fortune's Fool. 

That's my camera case. How meta.

So, I signed up for this game because it uses Tarot. Your draws are successful or not based on the number and whether the suit (or Major Arcana) is a favorable one for your character. The game was based on Beauty and the Beast, Michelle played a character called Belle, I played Sir Gilbert, who wound up contracting the curse of the Beast and getting all hairy and people-eat-y at the end. The game was a lot of fun. If I have a criticism, it's that toward the beginning the GM had a tendency to interrupt, but he got over that (he's a big personality, like me, so I know how it is). :) My Grade: A.

And then we went to the hotel bar, had a drink, went to bed. Nothin' fancy.

Next day, on the way to Clay-o-Rama, I saw strange and beautiful things:

I'm a sucker for supers.

Robots!

More supers!

A dragon made of balloons!

And then I made it to the Family Fun Pavilion, where I found my table and folks got working on their Claydonians.

Preparing for war.

All set to the dulcet tones of Radio Disney!

Killlll meeeeeee.

The battle was joined, and it went the way it usually does. Bloody (clay-y?) melee...

And the adorable little girl that no one thinks will be a threat hung on with most of her hit points until the end, and then mopped up the survivors (hers is the purple thing up there).

So then it was finally time to wander the dealer's room, which, despite being in the room a good deal of the con, I hadn't been able to do. So I took some pictures.

Lolth!

Some...elf guy with a panther!

Michelle, Dave Brookshaw, and a box!

John Kennedy, and his girlfriend, Kat!

My GenCon 2012 haul.

 So in general, good con. Next year: Definitely doing Games on Demand. Definitely not doing Guest of Honor. Ain't worth it. They don't treat you right. Actually, the con in general could stand to step up its customer service game a little. This "no refunds" bullshit is getting a little stale.

But I hate to end on a negative note, so I'll just say: I'll be there next year, hopefully with some spankin' new games to show off!

Character Creation: Cortex

I would like to make a character. I don't have much else to say...OR DID I?

The Game: Cortex
The Publisher: Margaret Weis Productions
Degree of Familiarity: Some. I've played Serenity and run Leverage, both of which work on this engine.
Books Required: Just the one.

So, the Cortex book is basically the game system, presented so you can use it as a generic system a la GURPS or d20. In the back, we've got several sample settings, which is good because it's hard to make a character with no setting, yeah? So which one?

Hrm. I'm not terribly fond of any of them, really. One is Star of the Guardians, which is more-than-vaugely Star Wars-ish, with hints of Dune. It's the one that interests me most, but there are no campaign seeds or suggestions, and there's so much backstory (told very quickly) that I can't help wondering if the setting would be interesting if I haven't read the novels (which I haven't).

Oh, what the hell. I haven't made a sci-fi character in a while. Let's do this.

The setting write-up talks about the ruling class, folks called the Blood Royals who were genetically engineered to be leaders and psionics. They have access to these kickass things called Bloodswords, weapons that work by stabbing you in the hand with needles and then becoming Lightsabers. I like that, and it's tempting to play a Blood Royal, but it's also tempting to play the Han Solo type who has no time for that kind of magic.

Ah, hell, I so rarely play the Chosen One. I'll make a younger character, then, someone who was looking forward to a life of leisure before the destruction of the old republic (like I said, you can see some Star Wars in here). That'll put me as a novice character, I think.

My Concept is "embittered princeling." He was only five when the monarchy was overthrown, and he's been in hiding in various places ever since (it's been 18 years since the overthrow of the monarchy; I think that's "current day." Honestly the summary makes my eyes glaze over).

Attributes. I get 42 points, and each die type costs its value (so a d10 costs 10). Hang on.

Agility d10
Strength d6
Vitality d8
Alertness d6
Intelligence d6
Willpower d6

Derived Attributes. Fuck you, these go at the end.

Traits. These are Assets and Complications. I start with no free Assets; I have to take Complications to get any. So hang on, let's look at the list.

I want Combat Paralysis (d4). Makes sense for a dude who's lived a mostly-sheltered life. Same reason, I'll take Low Pain Threshold (d6). Ooh, On the Run makes sense. I'll take d12; something about him threatens the status quo to an alarming degree (again, this would require digging into the setting a bit more). Finally, I take Rotten Luck (d8). Twice per session, the GM can make me reroll a successful roll. That sucks, but with a good GM it'd be fun.

Right, that's my 30 points (I can't take more than that). Now, Assets! I take Blood Royal (d8), which lets me use a Bloodsword and psionics and stuff. I should look up psionics, then.

OK, so the system is pretty loose. I'll take Telekinesis (d10), and say that he would have more psi, except he hasn't really had the training he needs.

Ah, hell, go big or go home. I'll take Destiny (d12), which eats the rest of my points. Once per session I can be saved from a roll that would kill me. My Destiny might be to bring back the nobles or some shit. Or, like, bring balance to the Force. Oh, wait, wrong IP.

Anyway, Skills. I get 62 points. This works like Serenity; I can take a General Skill up to d6, but if I want it better than I have to specialize. I'm hip.

First thing's first: Bloodsword. I buy Melee Weapons up to d6, and then Bloodsword to d10. Costs me 10 total.

Athletics d6, sure. Pilot d4. Ranged Weapons d4. Guns d4. Lot of broad, light combat training, but little experience. I have 34 left. I'll take Tech d6, Knowledge d6 (Blood Royal d8), Covert d6, Influence d6 (Intimidate d8). Six points left. I'll spend 2 into a Stealth specialty and put the other d4 into Discipline.

Technically Gear is next, but fuck that. I'm already bored. How about Derived Attributes?

I get 14 Life Points (Vitality + Willpower), 16 Initiative (Agility + Alertness), 14 Endurance (same as Life Points), and 16 Resistance (Vitality x2).

Nothing left but a name. Characters in this universe evidently have American-sounding names. Let's say this guy's name is Bryn Garlon, just because it sounds more Star Wars-y to me.

Fear Itself

Actually, given the context that this phrase is usually used ("nothing to fear but"), it's an interesting title for a horror game.

The Game: Fear Itself
The Publisher: Pelgrane Press
Degree of Familiarity: Some with GUMSHOE, none with this game in particular.
Books Required: Just the one.

So, this is a horror/slasher game. There's no given premise (indeed, the first step is that the GM gives us one), so I shall pick one from the list of example premises. Heh. "Regulars at a hipster coffee shop in a bohemian neighborhood." Sounds good. I like coffee.

I start with a concept. It needs to be easily distilled down to a two-word phrase, because these characters are meant to be archetypal. I'll say my concept is "overeducated barista." His name is Ross Landau.

I choose a risk factor. This is what motivates me to run into stupid encounters. What is Ross' stupid blind spot that's going to get him killed? "Curious" is tempting, but really, this being a horror movie, I think I'd rather play "Horny." Ross is smart, sure, but he's also using those smarts (and his badass coffee-making skillz) to impress the honeys.

Ooh, actually, I can take more than one. OK, I'll take Curious as well.

Right, now I choose the worst thing I ever did. Obvious for horror movies, I think; this is the thing that might get revealed and either embarrass or implicate Ross during the game. What's the worst thing Ross ever did? I think Ross robbed the coffee shop once. He's worked there on and off for a few years, and during one of the "off" times he broke in after hours, opened the office, and stole the day's take (they never took deposits to the bank until Monday morning). He feels bad about it - he's an ethical person, generally, and he did it more out of spite than need - but the worst part is that he carried a knife with him. He has no idea what he'd have done if anyone had caught him, and that scares him.

Now I buy Abilities. This works a lot like Trail of Cthulhu. I get 10 investigative points (I assume if I were playing there would be at least 4 people), and 60 points to spend on General Abilities.

For Investigative, I do this:

History 1
Humanities 1
Natural History 1
Occult Studies 1
Research 1
Trivia 2
Flattery 1
Flirting 2
Computer Science 1

Pretty spread out, mostly a college-educated dude. But really good at useless bullshit, and really good at making panties hit the floor.

Then General:

Athletics 5
Driving 5
Filch 4
Fleeing 5
Health 10
Infiltration 5
Sense Trouble 5
Preparedness 8
Scuffing 3
Stability 9

I get one freeing Health and Stability, and Fleeing costs half so my score is really 10.

Sources of Stability: I need three. I'll take the coffee shop as one (Grounds for Dismissal). Just being there, but especially slinging drinks, helps him find his zen. I'll take sex as another. Ross doesn't have a special lady at the moment, but he has lots of fuck-buddies and he's always looking out for more. It's be easy to see him as a player, but he's not - he doesn't lie to women about his intentions, and he's happy if sex results in a lasting relationship, he's just not broken up if it doesn't.

Last one: Guess I'd better give him a relationship. There's a professor at his alma mater who works in the history department named Sally Myer. Sally is a tenured prof, probably 20 years old than Ross, but they had an affair once. It lasted a few weeks during the summer, and they stopped sleeping together when school resumed, but they've remained in email and occasional lunch-date contact. Ross misses her, and sometimes toys with the notion of going back to school to pursue a PhD. If she wound up his adviser, so much the better.

Now, I consider What Do You Want. I need a personal goal for Ross. It's supposed to be mundane and it's good to tie it in to the premise, so I'll say Ross wants to be a manager at the coffee shop. The present manager, Tim Belanger, is boring and jock-ish, and seems to have some real contempt for the weirdos that come in after dark. Ross wants the place to go 24 hours, he wants open mics and movie nights, he wants Grounds for Dismissal to develop more of its own identity.

Last thing on the sheet is affinity and enmity, but those refer to other PCs, which of course I don't have. As such, that's me done!

This would be an odd horror game. A "last the night" in the coffee shop would be fun, but a longer story might also be fun if there's a creeping horror in the neighborhood that starts killing patrons. I'd like to play Ross either way.

OK Road Trip: Day 3-Home - Crickets, wine and cooking

 So! When last we left our...us...we'd lost our damn AC. Again. We dropped it off at the Firestone in Lawton, OK and piled into Michelle's parents' pickup truck to go home (tight fit, but her mom let me drive because she's an angel).

Firestone got working on it the next day (it would later turn out that the first fix involved a faulty part, and the compressor exploded again. The mechanic was very excited, he said they'd never seen anything like it before. Yaaaay. At least it was under warranty so it didn't cost me more). Meantime, we did Oklahoma things.

We saw The Amazing Spider-Man, which I really enjoyed. But no pictures of that. We went back to the house in Temple, OK (which is small and empty and OH GOD GET ME OUT), which was being swarmed by crickets. Like, really, you'd go outside and there was a blanket of them. Frogs loved it, though.

Next day (which I guess would have been...um...Monday? I'm totally lost) I mentioned I wanted to cook. We were going to go to Michelle's brother's house so the kiddos could swim, but they also have this awesome kitchen that they seldom use. Michelle's mom was kind of flabberghasted that I a) could cook b) wanted to cook and c) would cook in someone else's house, but see, I center myself by cooking, and I was pretty off-center.

So we went by Wal-Mart (ugh, if I never set foot in another Wal-Mart it'll be too soon, but there apparently aren't grocery stores in Oklahoma) and got stuff to make chicken Parmesan, which is simple and easy to make, but also not strange (Oklahoma is the land of starch and red meat and that's it) for the diners. So the kids jumped in the pool:

Will and Al, pooling.

Will and his superhero cousin, Libby.

...I made dinner. It was well-received, and April (who's...geez, my sister-in-law, I guess. Wow, I just realized that! Neat!) asked for the recipe. So that was gratifying. :)

Home, sleep, uneventful day, crickets, and then next day, voop! Off we go! We got the CR-V first, of course, and then headed to Oklahoma City and Half-Price Books, where we sold off enough books and records and whatnot from Michelle's parents' house to finance most of our trip home (so that was nice).

We drove to Springfield, MO, stopped for barbecue for dinner, and then I realized there was no way I was driving another 180 miles to Fenton (which is where our hotel was) without coffee. So we drove down "C-Street" in Springfield, which was a cool little area, and found some photo-worthy stuff:

A rose in the street.

A creature made of metal.

We also found a coffee shop called Big Momma's, which is exactly my kind of place:

They really like hedgehogs.

I totally agree.

We got coffee and dessert, and then back on the road! We found some radio broadcasts of The Shadow to listen to, and that got us to Fenton.

Next day (Thursday), we set off toward home. We had breakfast at this awesome little restaurant called Maggie's Lunch Box (if you're in Fenton, I highly recommend it - I had a beef and ale sandwich that was amazing). Behold!

Soooo maannnnyyy....

...lunchboooxxesss...

And then we found ourselves in Illinois, and near Greenup. We'd been here before, at a winery that we really enjoyed, so we stopped by again (amidst whiny protests from Will) to buy more wine. We also found a cool covered bridge nearby:

Ooh, covered bridges.

Lyons!

And from there, the long slog home. Stopped by Indianapolis and had dinner at an awesome little Chinese place with John Kennedy. And then home!

And here we are. Our next trip, I think, is GenCon.