Character Creation: Small Things

Figure I may as well polish off Seven Wonders, while I'm at it.

The Game: Small Things
The Publisher: Pelgrane Press, in Seven Wonders
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Small Things is a game very much in the vein of Thimble or the setup I used waaaay back here for Dreaming Cities. You're playing little beings living in a house, taking care of the Big Things (people) that live there. The default setting is Britain between 1930 and 1950, and one of the listed inspirations is Wallace & Gromit, so that's fun.

In order to make my Small Thing (yes, the song is now in my head, well done) I would normally come up with the House and the Big Things. I'm gonna say that my Small Thing lives in an old country house, and that the family that lives there is an elderly couple taking care of their grandson (the implication here might be the parents are dead, gone, off to war, whatever, it's not really important from the Small Things' perspective).

(If I were actually playing this game there would be more time devoted to fleshing these things out, but for my purposes that's good enough.)

The first thing I need to do is figure out my Small Thing's core concept, what I'm best at and what my function is in the house. Since I live with someone who consistently misplaces her eyeglasses, my Small Thing is going to be the guardian of lost necessities. When the Big Things lose their glasses, medicine, keys, and other needful things, my Small Thing finds them and puts them back on the table or nightstand or whatever. He can't be arsed to chase after toys for the young Big Thing, though, as those things don't seem needful.

Now I make up two special abilities. One that's listed as an example is Hotter/Colder, which lets me know how close I am to a lost object, which seems pretty appropriate. And then I think I want something related to putting things back where they belong. Maybe I can throw inanimate objects many times my weight? Sure, I'll call it Caber Toss.

Next we'd ask each other questions about our respective Small Things from a list. I'll answer two, how about.

Is your Small Thing more attached to the House or the Family? Why? I think he's more attached to the Family. The House is nice and all, but it doesn't need anything.

What is your Small Thing afraid of? Starvation. He remembers winters when the food nearly ran out, how the elderly couple (not so elderly at the time) got thin and wasted away. They needed food, and he couldn't get it because they hadn't lost it, it just wasn't there.

And now we do appearance. Small Things don't necessarily look human (indeed, I don't think any of the described ones do). I think my Small Thing looks like an old pair of reading glasses. His moniker is Focal. I picture him as being gruff and businesslike, but encouraging - he's perfectly willing to help other Small Things do what they need to do, though he's more likely to grumble about it if it seems unnecessary.

And that's it, I think.