Character Creation: Dreamchaser

Trying desperately to stay ahead of my "one character a week" schedule and doing OK so far.

I mean, "desperately" is perhaps an exaggeration, but whatevs. On we go!

The Game: Dreamchaser: A Game of Destiny
The Publisher: Imagining Games
Degree of Familiarity: None apart from reading it. The author has explained it to me a bunch of times, and I can never figure out how to pitch it. That's not a condemnation; the game is beautiful and well-reviewed, and I'm looking forward to trying it out.
Books Required: Just the one.

So, in essence, Dreamchaser is a system-light, generic RPG in which you decide what you want to do, what the steps are to doing so, and then tell the story. So its schtick, I guess, is the focus on the "dream", but it's not like the game actually takes place within a dream or anything (unless you want it to). It's so wide-open that I find myself needing something to grab onto while I'm reading it, and I would really have liked an example of play (there are a bunch on the site, but nothing text-based that goes start to finish, not that I can see).

But I'm pretty smart, so I'm sure I can figure it out. The first part of the game is "Dream Mapping," in which we (the hypothetical "we" of the group) figure out a dream to follow and then the characters who are taking part in that dream.

The book gives us a whole bunch of example dreams:

Figuring out the dream says a lot about the setting, though a lot of it would be implicit. I also think it's interesting that a lot of the dreams up there seem pretty individual - like, what would a game look like in which the collective dream is "get the girl?" Likewise, "release the hounds" is typically something one says when ones is driving intruders away, but if it's the goal of a whole game, man, what the hell are these hounds? (That sounds pretty dope, actually.)

I think for my dream, I'm gonna pick "Ask the moon for a favor." That sounds like a really lovely idea.

So now that I have a dream, I get to imagine my Role. I'm meant to explain this Role in a couple of words (basically a High Concept Aspect, if we were playing Fate). I think I want to play a dying guide, someone who's on the journey to ask the moon for a favor but doesn't expect that it'll end well for him.

And as I'm doing this and listening to my iTunes on shuffle, this song came up:

There's only one verse:

Voy a navegar
Al puerto de alma
Cruzando el mar
Hasta qua llegar

("I going to sail to the port of the soul, crossing the sea until I arrive," if my Spanish is right.)

If that ain't goddamn perfect.

Next step is to make up Milestones. These are things that have to happen in the story - stemming from my character or happening to my character - before we can achieve our dream. The players involved pick a number of Milestones based on how long we want the game to be; for a one-shot, we'd pick one each. Let's assume we were playing a short campaign (3-6 sessions), so I'll pick two.

I want my character to be able to lead the party through danger, I think. I picture my character as an Aragorn kind of person; pretty damn capable on his own merits, but vulnerable, especially if he's looking after others. I can get more specific with Milestones, though, if I want, but I think my phrasing here ("lead the party through danger") is fine. I think I'll add the word "safely", actually.

For my second Milestone, I'll say "accept my fate and die." It sounds morbid, but it doesn't have to be. As Amigo the Devil tells us, there's only one kind of people in this world - people who die.

Now I describe my guide with 3 tags. These are just very brief descriptors or attributes that help flesh him out.

Well, I know I want him to be careworn (I like it better than "weathered" for some reason). I see him as having really sharp senses, so I'll take perceptive. And finally I'll take lorekeeper - he knows the secrets of the world, that's how he can guide you to the moon.

Next I get Strategies. These are effectively skills, but I can define them as I like. I get three, and I can choose their rating (4-7). Hmm. Do they all have to be a different rating? (This is why examples are good!) Hang on (there's an AP on Youtube). Ok, got it. I can have multiple Strategies at a given level, but only two because there are only two slots at each level.

I note, too, that Strategies are supposed to be exactly that - how my character approaches problems. I think my guide prefers to go around problems, missing them entirely, so I'm going to take Stealth as one, and I'll put it at The Best. I think that my guide can fight or use magic or something - ooh, actually, I think banishing magic. I'll put that at Expert. And then finally I think that my guide can talk his way out of problems, so I'll take Riddling as a Strategy, also at Expert.

Next up, I assign 10 points among Soul Skills. There's only two, Imagine and Reason. I'd use Reason when a Strategy directly applies to a situation, and Imagine when it might, but it's a fuckin' stretch. I like that. I see my guide as a pretty direct sort of person, so I'll go 4 in Imagine and 6 in Reason.

Now I get 12 points to split between my three types of Health (Body, Mind, Spirit). Hmm. I think I'll put 2 into Body (he's an old man, and frail), and then 5 and 5 in the others.

Next, three Relationships. Typically I'd use a PC as one of them, but I ain't got none, so I'll just have to make up three NPCs (or I could use two slots and make an Organization, but eh). I'll take Marlon, the Skull, as a Casual Relationship. I can get Spirit Gossip from him. I'll take Death as a Contact; I can get Perspective from him (I want the Pratchett version of Death, here). I can take things or places as Relationships, too, going by the examples, so I'll take the Map of Home as a True Love, and tag it with memories of my wife (ooh, tragic). We made the map together; it was the first one.

And then three iconic items (see, I could have put the Map here, I guess, but it's not clear what the difference is). I want a Patchwork Coat, repaired and restitched over a lot of years. I'll take a Black Knife ("it's not a dagger," he'll say if asked, "it's a knife. Knives are tools. Daggers are weapons."). And I'll take a Glove of Silver (used as part of banishing magic, I think).

Finally, I have to come up with a Name. My dying guide's name is Pallor (it's not his real name, but he doesn't give that out - too many bad memories).

And that'll do it! Just goes to show that left to my own devices I drift toward tragedy and bittersweet.