Character Creation: Atomic Highway

You don't need headlights on the atomic highway, because it glows. Also you're probably dead.

The Game: Atomic Highway
The Publisher: Radioactive Ape Designs
Degree of Familiarity: None.
Books Required: Just the one.

I picked this game up at a con some years back, read it on a trip at one point, and I feel like making a character tonight and I recall this being fairly straightforward.

OK, so, Atomic Highway is a Road Warrior-inspired RPG complete with mutants, warring over gas, bartertowns, and so on. One thing I like right up front: The book tells me that the chargen rules create "highly competent individuals," which I like.

Character Concept. OK. Well, I enjoy playing Borderlands, which has a kind of Mad Max feel even if it's not strictly post-apocalyptic. So can I make a sniper/hunter like Mordecai? Bet I can. My concept is meant to be pretty brief right now, so I'll sum it up as "slightly insane sniper."

Assign Attribute Points. Moving right along. I get 18 points to split between seven Attributes, no more than 5 in any one. Let's look 'em up. It looks like Nimbleness and Senses are what I want high, so I'll put 4 in each. That leaves me 7 left, with six Attributes. Hmm. Lots of 1s. Does that fuck me? Doesn't seem to. Fine, I'll put 1s in everything except Understanding.

Calculate Health. (Muscle + Tenacity + Toughness) x 2 = 6. I'm kind of weak, I guess.

Record Natural Skills. I get Athletics, Brawl, Melee, Notice, Persuade, Shoot and Stealth at 1, just because you pretty much need those for this game. Thumbs up, Colin!

Select and Record Rearing. Huh-huh. Ooh, I get a template. Hang on. I'll take 'Steader. My character's family were homesteaders, trying to farm tubers and other hardy foods far from any kind of civilizations. My character grew up malnourished, but lean and sharp-eyed. I get some free Skills:

Ride 1, Heal 1, Melee 1, Notice 1, Shoot 1, Zoofinity 1

Select and Record Pursuit. My job, basically. Bounty Hunter is tempting, but then, so is Wastelander. I kind of need to figure this out a little. OK, so he was on the homestead with his family, why'd he leave? Place was wiped out by a blight. Killed the crops, the livestock, and most of the hands. He went to a bartertown looking for working and hooked up with a bounty hunter named Mug. Mug taught him about the trade, but mostly she liked him because he could hang back and shoot people if they didn't come quietly. Mug took a round in the face last year, and my guy (he just calls himself "Simple Simon") is on his own, now.

Right, anyway. Bounty Hunter gives me:
Athletics 1, Brawl 1, Criminal 1, Heal 1, Melee 1, Notice 1, Shoot 2, Stealth 1, Survive 1. I get a fully loaded rifle, a knife and two primitive melee weapons of choice. I get gloves, boots, pants, shirt, a jacket and a scarf. I get a lighter, 3 sets of manacles, a waterskin and 50' of rope.

Customize! I get 4 points to buy Skills, but apparently I can't go over 4 in a Skill. So I'm at my max for Shoot. I'll pump a point into Stealth, a point into Zoofinity, a point into Scavenge and a point into Intimidate.

Personalize! I've gotten into Simon's backstory a bit, but I need to customize his gear (no, really, it's in the book). His clothes are a pastiche of stuff he's stolen from people he's shot or brought in - brown leather gloves, black leather jacket, dingy white scarf (Mug made that for him), cargo pants with pockets for extra shells, denim shirt (no, really), a lighter with an eagle on it, a waterskin. The boots are about the only things he has left from the homestead - ragged, layer leather, made from the first cow he ever slaughtered.

Simon probably would have been happy hunting and homesteading, but he's good with bounty hunting, too. He uses black hunting rifle that he found rusting when he was a boy, took apart, cleaned, put back together and got working (I'm not getting into makes and models because eh). His knife is one that he found and his dad re-handled with horn from one of their cattle. And then I get two more primitive weapons. Hmm. I'll take a light ax, because I can throw it. He used that ax to kill the guy that killed Mug - he couldn't take a shot at the guy because his rifle jammed up. And I'll take a bullwhip - useful if I want to entangle, but not kill.

And I think that'll do it.

Character Creation: Sorcerer

"Sorcerer" is one of those words I rarely spell correctly on the first try. I keep wanting to put another "o" in it. 

The Game: Sorcerer
The Publisher: Adept Press, but that seems to be defunct
Degree of Familiarity: None. I read it on our trip to Kentucky and it kind of screamed "Run me!"
Books Required: Just the core.

So, in this game you play someone who called up and bound a demon because he really wants something. There's not really a lot of required commonality between demons; that is, the game invites you to consider the overarching mythology if you want (fallen angels? evil spirits?) but the effect is much the same. I have an idea for what I'd do if I ran this, and I'm thinking that after Snowblind finishes I may see if that group wants to give this a try.

But anyway. Making a character starts with some kind of concept. I know that I want a demon bound into my very flesh, but before I get to the demon, let's start with the need. What did my character need so badly that he called a demon into his body?

My character's name is Jacob Marley. Yep, just like in the story. His parents just liked the name "Jacob", and they weren't big literature people. Jacob (Jay, please) loved to read, and watched A Christmas Carol in class when he was in grade school. Some of the kids teased, but Jay was just taken with the idea of being in chains, forever, not because of some specific sin but because of not being nice enough. He tried to be nice from then on out.

It didn't work. He didn't have great examples. His dad was a drunk, and he wasn't exactly abusive, but he wasn't above smacking Jay around a bit when he'd had too many. Mom was no slouch, either, and she smoked too much and spoke sharply and wasn't always happy to have a kid around. Jay did well in school up until 8th grade, and then he started running with the wrong crowd. He learned to draw in high school - he'd always been arty, but now he really learned to do it well - and took first place and a scholarship in an art show. His parents didn't show up, and never filled out the paperwork he needed to claim the prize. He missed his shot.

Jay never forgave them for that, and he moved out when he was 18. He played in a band for a while, drank a lot, worked menial jobs, got in fights and got tattoos. He hooked up with a girl whose father ran a tattoo parlor and learned to ink from him. The girl - Trina - died of a heroin overdose when she was 20, and her father took Jay in (they'd always gotten along). He taught Jay the business, and Jay felt like maybe this was OK. He was Cratchett to Scrooge, after Scrooge had the big shakeup. Maybe he wouldn't have to be in chains forever.

And then his mentor, Mr. C (close as they are, that's what Jay calls him) developed lung cancer. And Jay spent a full week in a medical library, reading everything he could, even in the stacks with the books that no one's touched in years, trying to find something, anything, to save the one person left on Earth he really loved. He found something, a name and a symbol, and late one night he inked it into his skin.

Whew. There. Let's do Scores. I get 10 points to divvy up between Stamina, Will and Lore. I see Jay as being in good, but not great, shape, so I put 3 in Stamina. I'll put 5 in Will, and that leaves 2 in Lore (he's smart, but hasn't had time to learn much yet).

I get a descriptor for each one, so for Stamina I'll put "Tireless." It's simple, but it describe what I see as his defining physical trait - he can work and focus for a long time without giving in. For Will, I'll take "School of Hard Knocks" - he's been kicked around a lot and it's toughened him. And for Lore, I'll take "Student of the Forbidden Science." He's learned what he's learned from old books, not a teacher.

Humanity starts at 5, since that's the higher of Stamina or Will, but I think it can change during chargen, so I don't write it yet.

Cover is, basically, my day job. I'm a Tattoo Artist. I'll say that goes off of Will, rather than Stamina.

Price is what's happened to me since binding with a demon. I'll say that the demon has made me Jittery; I take a -1 to rolls involving fine motor control (which is awesome for a tattoo artist, I'm sure).

I have a Tell-tale, something that marks me as a sorcerer. I want this to be tattoo related. Jay has intricate lettering tattooed on his chest, arms and back. It changes color ever so slightly, especially if his demon is active.

Now, Jay starts with one demon bound to him. We've established where it came from. I don't ever get to see the character sheets of other demons I'd summon, but I'm actually just going to write in my demon's stats on my sheet so I only have to scan in one paper. So I flip the next chapter to do this demon.

My demon is called (well, Jay calls it) Skin. It's a Parasite demon, because it lives in Jay's flesh. It's Telltale is that sometimes a face appears under Jay's skin. I think it needs the following abilities: Armor, Boost, Fast, Hint and Vitality. That gives it a Lore of 5. Its Stamina can be 2, I think it's pretty weak on its own. It's Will is Lore + 1 (in this case, since Lore is higher), or 6. Power is equal to Will (6).

It has a Need (which I have to give it to keep it strong) and Desire (which I should indulge occasionally, or else it'll disobey me). Skin's Need is pain. It likes Jay's pain best, and that means more and more elaborate tattoos, but it can be satisfied for a while soaking up the pain from a client (especially if Jay goes a little too fast or hard just to make it hurt more). Its Desire is Sensation. It Needs pain, but it likes feeling. Hot, cold, sex, water, whatever. Jay just has be to experiencing something tactile, the more naked the better.

And then the Kicker! The Kicker is what's happening right now, an opportunity or a way to get Jay going right out of the gate (yes, much like the "What Just Happened?" question in Don't Rest Your Head or curse the darkness, both of which owe something to Sorcerer). Jay's Kicker...hmm. He's at the tattoo shop and about to lock up and go to the hospital to visit Mr. C, when a girl walks in, rolls up her sleeve and points to a tattoo on her arm - "When did you give me this?" Jay figures she might have been drunk when she got it (it happens), and it definitely looks like his work - but he's never seen her before in his life.

And I think that'll do it.