Character Creation: House of Cards

We were supposed to play Song of Ice & Fire tonight, but Michelle was sick, so we hung out and watched The Devil's Advocate instead (post coming soon). As such, I'm not tired and I think it'd be fun to make a character. So here we are.

The Game: House of Cards
The Publisher: Parenthesis Press
Degree of Familiarity: Some. Just ran a game last week.
Books Required: Just the one, plus a Tarot deck.

You know, I like this game. It's nicely surreal, it has a fun, workable system (though I do have some niggles), and it's got a specific enough setting to be interesting while still be open enough to screw with if you were so inclined. Also, I like games that are ballsy enough to say "You need a Tarot deck" and not apologize for it. Maybe it's a gimmick, whatevs. It's a theme. We don't need more watered-down, generic games (with all due respect to Fablestreams and their revolutionary new game, GeneSys, which is sure to be totally not a gigantic flaming clusterfuck).

So. In this game you're playing the incarnation of one of the Major Arcana, but not the World, because the GM is the World (there is no World-Bearer). Each Arcana only has one Bearer at any given time, so if you're playing the Death-Bearer, you're the Death-Bearer. I like that a lot.

To make a character, we choose an Archetype. You can pick one if you feel strongly, but I don't so I'm choosing at random. Got my Rider-Waite right here. I pull out the World, and randomly choose...The Wheel of Fortune! Neat! (Actually, I chose the Lovers and the Chariot, first, but I wanted to do one that wasn't represented the other night.)

OK, so, Wheel of Fortune. My Bearer is Jesse Northup. Jesse is a garbage collector, but was once on the cusp of marrying into a vast fortune. Then his fiance got into a car wreck, and though she survived, the head trauma was extensive enough that her personality shifted, and was completely incompatible with Jesse's.

Jesse has "easy come" tattooed on his right arm and "easy go" tattooed on his left. He has a huge wheel of fortune tattooed on his back, and he has the symbol for "Om" on his chest.

Good start. Now I do five correspondences. I pick Triumph, Tragedy, Chaos, Probability and Randomness.

Then I do Motivations. I have to pick what Jesse loves, desires, fights for, and opposes and then split 10 points amongst them. Hmm.

Well, I think Jesse loves Fair Play. He wants to see people succeed because they should, because they worked to be their best rather than because they shot the other guy in the leg. It's not entirely in his nature as the agent of chance, but it's what he loves. He desires Victory. He loves watching the underdog win, the chips coming down where they "should." He knows that the house always wins eventually, but sometimes it doesn't, and he likes being there when that happens. He fights for Serenity. He wants people to accept what they get, rather than bemoan their fate (which is different than trying to change it). He opposes Fatalism. Nothing is ever, ever, over. The Wheel never actually stops. I'll put 4 into Opposes Fatalism and 2 into each of the others.

Now I pick a Greater Power. Well, I can pick one or I can make one up. There are three examples listed in the book. One lets me start with a "weird," but I didn't read those rules. Well, maybe I'll check them out real quick. Hang on. OK, it's like a geasa. I adhere to the rules, I get a card I can use that's committed to that, and I can use that card. Eh. I like the idea of the second power (I'm never surprised, I can always react as though I expected what was coming), but there's no system attached to it, and I've run this game now and I know that having a power that hooks into the system is a good thing. I think I'll go with Rota - I expend a card, then gather up everyone's cards, shuffle and deal them out evenly.

And that's me done, in fact. Nice and quick.

Character Creation: The Play's the Thing

Go Hamlet, go Hamlet.

The Game: The Play's The Thing
The Publisher: Magpie Games
Degree of Familiarity: Not much. I've read it, but haven't gotten a chance to play it.
Books Required: Just the one, though a complete of the Complete Works of Shakespeare doesn't hurt, either.

So, The Play's The Thing came out of the same Game Chef as our upcoming A Tragedy in Five Acts (coming soon from Play Attention Games, Inc!), which was Shakespeare-themed. It focuses on a troupe of actors putting on one of Shakespeare's plays. You make the actors first (so, kind of like It Came from the Late, Late, Late Show, in a way). Before actually playing you decide what play you're doing. The play...doesn't always wind up like it does in the script.

I like this game (at least in concept, though again, I haven't had the pleasure of playing it yet) because it asks something of the players. In this case, it asks that they know at least a little Shakespeare. I'm fine with games that are completely accessible to anyone, but I also don't mind games that ask for a skill set or reward a particular kind of play or are specialized.

'Cause see, here's the thing. There are a million games out there where the pitch is "roleplaying game in [genre] or [setting]", and that means, basically, you romp around, you get in fights, you follow a GM's plotline, but the mechanics don't support the game specifically. Instead, they model shit your character does, with the lion's share of attention on combat. This is the result of our D&D ancestors, and that's all fine, but y'know, we don't have to do it that way. I really feel like story games are a more evolved form of RPG.

Anyway. Making a character here requires I come up with a name and a brief description. I enjoy listening to Patton Oswalt, and I like his acting. He tells a story about bullshitting his way into the Batman Begins premiere and having Brian Dennehey tell him, "Character actors! No one gives a fuck if we're fat!" I want my character to be an older, rather plump character actor - fun roles for him would be Sir Toby Belch, Jacques, one of the two drunk dudes in the The Tempest whose names I forget (which is embarrassing), or, if he's stretching his theatrical muscles, Kent in Lear or Polonius.

My guy's name is Thom Orsino. It's a stage name; he was in Twelfth Night in college and his best friend played Orsino, and then died of an overdose a week later. His first name was Thom, so he took the stage name in tribute to his friend.

So now I do Acting Chops. I have a pool of six points, so I can split up 2/2/2, but what fun is that? I'll put 3 into Logos (which verbal acumen and control over the events of the play), 1 into Pathos (emotional resonance - not Thom's strong point, he'd rather make jokes) and two into Ethos (narrative understanding and setting of the play).

I get a Type, too. Thom's pretty clearly a Ham. His Offstage ability is I can spend a story point to compel another actor to call for him, and his Onstage ability is that I can yell "Cut!" without spending a story point. However, at Director's request, I must soliloquize, which fortunately I'm good at.

And that's it, actually, because the rest of the process would get done in play when we select the Play (and then make it the Thing, I suppose).

Character Creation: Tales from the Wood

There's a joke to make, here, but it's not appropriate because this is a family-friendly game.

The Game: Tales from the Wood
The Publisher: Beyond Belief Games
Degree of Familiarity: None, though I suspect I'll have to run it eventually.
Books Required: Just the one.

I picked up Tales from the Wood as part of a trilogy (Kids & Critters, which also includes It's a Dog's Life, in which you play prairie dogs). The game is about playing the woodland creatures of England, and the ones you play are the creatures of the Way, while the nastier creatures are those of the Bane.

Joining me today will be Kai, by the way. He has already decided he wants to play a hedgehog.

My first step: Choosing a Creature. I choose a toad, because I like the little brown hop-toads that live under my steps.

So, it looks like the way this works is that picking a creature determines your traits and skills right off, and then you get some customization points at the end. That's cool, especially for a kid-friendly game. So my traits:

Toughness 1
Sturdiness 2
Nimbleness 3
Craftiness 2
Fierceness 2
Alertness 2

...are set for now. Next?

I note my Abilities; I get Hide, Swim and Intimidate. Interestingly, Kai's hedgehog only gets a choice of Intimidate or Tooth & Claw. Not sure about that.

Anyway, now Lore. I pick between Marsh or River. I pick Marsh; toads aren't really great swimmers.

Now I get 5 points. Kai spends his on the Track Ability. I think I'd rather raise my numbers. I'll spend 2 and buy a point of Toughness, and my remaining 3 to raise my Craftiness.

So OK. My toad is name Gulper. Gulper lives in a marsh, mostly hanging around the edges eating bugs. He knows the marsh pretty well, but he's afraid of the lights he sees out there sometimes. He's heard stories from frogs (who he kind of idolizes for their athletic prowess) about lights that blind them, and then they're taken up, perhaps to a better place.

Sometimes when he sees the lights, a big brown dog comes to see him. At first he was terrified, but the dog always seems happy to see him, so now he thinks of it as his pet.

Character Creation: GURPS Cabal

I own three GURPS books (plus the Basic Set, 3rd Ed, which tells you how much use I have for GURPS). I've done characters for two of those books, and since I have some time this afternoon, I figure I may as well get the last one out of the way.

The Game: GURPS Cabal
The Publisher: Steve Jackson Games
Degree of Familiarity: Some. I play GURPS about once a year when Karafa playtests his Origins games, though we seem to have skipped it this year.
Books Required: The Cabal book and the GURPS book.

So, GURPS Cabal is a book by Ken Hite about a shadowy conspiracy of supernaturally inclined folks who are divided up into lodges, a la Masons, Illuminati, Rosicrucians and any other such group you'd care to name. The book is really well done, pretty Eurocentric, but that's addressed and you get several options as to why that is. There's a lot of good stuff in the book, including a section on what kinds of characters would be fun to play. And the idea that jumped out at me was "Collector."

My character is wealthy, and started collected odd trinkets when he was young. He learned to detect magical stuff when he was a teenager; it gives him a buzz to hold it, though he has no other magical talent himself. He devoted his wealth to finding stuff that made him feel good to hold, and while he was on such a hunt, a Cabal member found him and nearly killed him to prevent him from grabbing a particular artifact. They made friends, though, and my guy joined the Cabal.

Good start. Now I get 100 points to build him. Oh, his name is Joost Visser, native of South Africa.

Attributes: Four Attributes, Strength, Dexterity, Intelligence and Health. Average is 10 (and free) and just goes up. Let's see. I picture Joost as being in pretty good shape overall. Let's keep his Intelligence average, and up his physical stats:

Strength 12
Dexterity 14
Intelligence 10
Health 13

For a total of...95 points. Jesus. Well, let's roll Intelligence back to 9, that gives me 85 to spend. My basic Speed is (Health + Dexterity)/4, or 6 (round fractions off).

Physical Appearance. Joost is blond, blue eyes, in good health if a little on a slim side, and well groomed. I'll spend 5 points and make him Attractive.

Wealth and Status. I know I want Joost to be rich, so I take Very Wealthy. That sets me back 30 points, but my wealth is 20 times the average, which sounds about right. I've spent 120 points.

Reputation. I don't know that I need one, really, unless I want to take a reputation amongst the Cabal. I think I'll skip it; Joost isn't a political animal. If you know him, you know him, but he's not made a name for himself.

Advantages. Well, hell, I'm already 20 points in the hole. Fuckit. I'll take Intuition (15 points) and Magical Aptitude (15 points). I'll buy Cabal Membership for 5 points (Initiate).

Disadvantages. Hell, I need a bunch. I need 55 points just to bring me even and I haven't done Skills yet. I want Public True Name (Joost Visser isn't famous, but he's wealthy and that makes him easy to research). I'll take Skinny and get five points back for that. I'll take an Addiction to handling magical items. Those are legal, but Joost is totally addictive, and he has to spend time and money acquiring said items, so this addiction is worth 15. Going along with that, I'll give him a Compulsion - he has to follow leads about magical or weird items, even if they're flimsy or obviously a trap. Sounds like 10 points.

OK, I'm at 40 points back, so I need at least 15 more. Impulsiveness is 10, and that's fun to play. Overconfident is another 10. I need the points, so I'll take a 30-point enemy. Let's say Exodus 22 tried to recruit Joost to help them hunt down and destroy "cursed objects," but Joost refused. They figure he's not with them, he's against them (which he is) and the anti-magic group has a "kill on sight" order for Joost Visser.

That puts me to 35 points on the positive. Let's keep it under control, yeah?

Quirks. I like these. Joost's quirks, each worth a point:

• Habit: pops his collar when he's about to do something risky.
  
• Dislikes fried food, can't stand the smell
  
• Proud of his country and won't suffer people talking smack about it
  
• Always carries a bad with three random, jewel-sized enchanted things (no effect)
  
• Dislikes sweets (they make his teeth hurt)

Skills. Here we go. I have 40 points. I figure Joost is in his 30s, so there's no problem spending the rest of my points on Skills. I'll buy the Detect Magic spell, since that's really the only one I want for Joost. I want him to be good at this, so I'll burn 12 points and buy it at 15.

I'll take Jumping at 14 (1 point), Swimming at 14 (1 point), Brawling at 14 (1 point), Language (English) at 9 (2 points), Climbing at 14 (2 points), Occultism at 11 (6 points), Gambling at 9 (2 points), Savoir-Faire at 12 (6 points), Sex Appeal at 13 (2 points), Holdout at 9 (2 points), Lockpicking at 9 (2 points) and Stealth at 13 (1 point).

And, of course, normally I'd buy equipment, but eh. Looks to me like Joost is about done and ready to collect more shit. It occurs to me that I didn't take anything to represent the magical value of his collection, and I think that's because he locks all of it away once he's gotten high off it. Somewhere that collection is just collecting dust, and that'd be a fun plot hook right there.

Character Creation: Privateers & Pirates

Yarr, etc.

The Game: Privateers and Pirates
The publisher: FJ Gaming, which doesn't seem to have a website.
Degree of Familiarity: None, just read the pdf.
Books Required: Just the one.

I picked this game up in a pdf bundle, like, three years ago, which might give you some sense of scale regarding how long I've been doing these damn characters. I just read through it, and it's...well, it's a pirate RPG. They go into a lot of detail about life on a ship and the piracy of the time and so on, and I have no idea how accurate it all is (and I don't care), but...

...well, the game isn't about anything. Maybe I'm getting infected by all these hippie indie games I'm playing (and writing!), but the traditional model of RPGs is kinda meaning less to me these days. I like running NWoD because I'm really invested in it, but beyond that I'd kinda rather be playing games where the system is what it is for a reason. The old canard that "system doesn't matter" always secretly bugged me, because it felt like it should, but I never got into "builds" and the things that D&D and GURPS and Exalted found important. I'd rather play a game where the system moves the story and helps you create the game, rather than just be a way to resolve individual actions.

Anyway. I'm gonna get out of my own ass now and make a character.

First of all, I'm told, I should decide on a concept. Okey-doke. Since there isn't a default setting here (there's a range, and some talk about "early" vs. "late" campaigns) I'll assume I'm making a character for the sample scenario at the back of the book. That ship has a Spanish captain, but the characters in this game are assumed to be British. So OK, my guy is English, born middle class (dad was a doctor). He was expected to follow in his father's footsteps, but he was always fascinated with the sea and the creatures therein. He might have been happy as a scientist or oceanographer, but one night he had a fight with his father, got very drunk, and woke up on a ship. He's learned enough since to be a competent sailor, but he's got a reputation as something of a softie. But he can also play doctor when necessary, so it's a bad idea to bust his chops too much.

OK, gotta decide name, nationality, religion, age and gender.

Name: Homer Market, known on the ship as "Mark," both because it's short for "Market" and because he's utterly gullible.
Nationality: English
Religion: Oh, Church of England, I suppose.
Age: 22
Gender: Male

Now, social status. Middle class.

Next, choose a number of skills plus specialities equal to the tens value of your Age doubled. Which is a clumsy way to say (age/10)x2, rounded off. Or 4, in my case. Let's see. Looking ahead to the example of chargen (and thank you for doing one), it turns out that I don't get 4 Skills and 4 specialities, I get 4 total. OK. So I take Healing (no specialty, he's not that good at it, Science with a specialty in Biology, and Signalling (he always had an interest in ships and he learned how to signal). That seems like it kind of sucks, but that's what you get.

Next I take Flaws. I'll take Compassionate and Reluctant. Basically I have to help people in need and I can't spend Drama points in fights that I started.

I get two Distinctive Features (again, a 10th of my age), so I pick...missing fingers (his pinky and half his ring finger on his right hand - turns out sharks bite even after they're landed!) and a scar on his left cheek (he has no idea; he woke up on the ship with a nasty cut).

I have four Drama points (2 because I'm middle class and one for each Flaw). I have 95 pounds to my name, which seems like a lot. Bet they want me to shop.

Well, not really. I may spend money. I choose not to. Let's go get that gold ship!

I worry, in going through chargen, than it makes incompetent characters. Let's see. OK, so how this works is: You roll a d100 against a difficulty, and you want to roll high. If you have the skill and the specialty, you read the higher die as the 10s digit and the lower as the ones. If have the skill, but not the specialty, you state which is which before you roll. If you don't have either, lower is 10s, higher is 1s. I think this would make for frustrating game play, but I dunno, and I'm not really likely to get to play this game, either, so let's call it a day.