Character Creation: Exuviae

Last couple of games I've done have been little indie games. Maybe next I'll do Eberron or something equally trad and dull. I'm running this one on Saturday, though, so I'd like to get the little green dot off it.

The Game: Exuviae - Relics of House Dragonfly
The Publisher: Sean Smith 
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one!

Exuviae was the result of a Game Chef challenge (making it one of the few games from a Game Chef to see publication, which is cool). It's billed as "Maltese Falcon as directed by David Lynch," which is enough to get my attention.

The game assumes that it's the 1940s and the characters are, for their own reasons, investigating an insect cult. It merges noir and hard-boiled detective stories with alien weirdness. I'm here for it. Making a character is just a matter of answering a few questions (no stats per se), so that's quick.

What sort of character are you? One of the "givens" about the city we're in (really about the only one) is that there's a body of water nearby. And suddenly "The Downeaster Alexa" by Billy Joel popped into my head. I've used this song as character fodder before, but not for a character on this project (it was actually the inspiration for a vampire character I played a loooong time ago named Nehemiah). My character is an impoverished fisherman. His name is Amos Rust. Amos used to be husky, but he's losing weight. He hasn't trimmed his beard in a while, and his eyes are sallow and sunken. He wears a black rain slicker, boots, and heavy clothes. He lives on his boat.

What was your first encounter with the cult? Amos saw the cult's young spawning in the bay. He thought it was a school of fish at first, but they had too many legs.

Why must the conspiracy be outed? Because normal folks are starving and losing everything while these bastards take us over from the inside!

What are three things most characters find trick, but you find easy? That's a really clunky way to say "skills." We'll say boating, intimidating landlubbers, and gutting fish (if that last one seems too specific, well, I think it'd be applicable to not-fish).

Someone has leverage over you. Who? Mikey McCandless, the harbor master. I haven't paid my docking fees in months, and he's looking the other way, but he's definitely ready to squeeze as soon as I have something worth squeezing over.

You have leverage over someone. Who is it? Joe "Button" Buttenich. I save Button's life during the war. I'm too proud to call on him for charity, but he's got a decent-sized house and he's done well for himself.

And that's it, actually. Well, at least chargen's nice and fast.