Character Creation: Tales from the Floating Vagabond

Sure, why not. Looks fun.

The Game: Tales from the Floating Vagabond
The Publisher: Avalon Hill, originally
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one, I think

Tales from the Floating Vagabond is an early 90s sci-fi humor game, centered around the titular Floating Vagabond, a bar in the center of an ever-expanding pocket dimension. It's run by a dude called Hawk Luger, whose nickname is "Spit." That seems to be pretty much where we're at.

But that's not a bad thing. Sure, there are a lot of terrible puns in the text of the game, but some of them are actually kind of funny. Sure, there's a lot of "game designers lol" kind of humor, but like, this was in the early 90s, and it's nice to know that someone was having a good time making games. I'm not crazy about the fact that most of the depicted characters are men and what women there are seem to fall pretty decisively into the cheesecake category, but again, early 90s, what are you gonna do.

What I do want to know, though, is what the expectation is for characters in this game. Looking at the sample adventure, it seems like it's basically wander into the pub and have adventures thrown at you, which is fine by me. Means I just have to make someone who would wander into a pub.

I kind of want to make a mostly normal, very chipper fellow who just got lost and figures that maybe someone in this place might be able to give him directions (he's from Pumpkin Falls, Iowa, but he was on a road trip). Walked into a bar, physics went weird, and here he is in the Floating Vagabond. Sure, it's a little shocking that aliens are real and that he's in a space-bar trillions of light years from home, but hey, as long as he's here...anyone know how to find the Interstate? His name is Allen Boyd, "like 'bird' if you're from Brooklyn!"

OK, good start. How do I actually make a character? I start with 20 stat points that I divvy up into seven stats, minimum 1, and they're one-for-one up to level 6. Can't divide them evenly, dangit. Two is average. Let's put 1 point into Cool, because Allen is so very not Cool, and 1 point into Common Sense, because Allen thought going into that biker bar to get directions was a good idea. That gives me 18 points for 5 stats. Better.

Well, I want a fairly high Luck score, because Allen's still alive, so I'll put 5 there. I'll put 5 into Smarts and 4 into Aim, which leaves me 4. I'll split them evenly between Strength and Nimbleness. That's 20, I think.

Oops! Points (which are like Hit Points) are Str + Luck + 2d6, I rolled 9, so that's 16. Luck points are equal to Luck, so 5. Easy enough.

Next up, Skills and Schticks and FUCK ME I get 1500 points. What the hell. I think we probably could have divided all these costs by 10 and been fine, but whatever. I'm actually going to skip ahead to Schticks because I can only take one. Huh. I can spend 500 points and buy a particular Schtick, or spend 200 and roll on a table. Ooh, that's tempting. Let's look at them and see if one is just perfect for Allen.

Oh, there's actually two: the Murphy Effect (Murphy's Law is in effect around me, but I can use it to my benefit) and the John Doe effect (people recognize me, because my face is so generic). I'm gonna spend 500 and buy the John Doe Effect, because it seems like exactly the sort of trouble Allen would get into. Neat, now I have 1000 points for Skills.

Well, I want Allen to be able to get out of the way, so I'll take Dodge and Duck at level 3 (which is 300 points, altogether). I'll take Drive Car at 1 (50 points, down to 650). Calculate at 1, sure, 100 points. I'll take Trivia 3, even though that eats a shitload of my points, because I think Allen knows a lot of useless stuff (holy shit, I'm making Del Griffith from Planes, Trains, & Automobiles). 250 left. I'll take Juggle at 2 (200) and then put the last 50 into a point of Throw.

I start with 2500 bucks, and of course I could go shopping, but I won't.

I figure Allen is in his early 30s. He tells a lot of dad jokes - probably even is a dad, because it'd be fun to have him pulling out pictures of his kids and boring the teeth out of people in the Floating Vagabond. He's white and has brown hair, he's slim but not athletic, he's handsome in a generic sort of way, and man, people always mistake him for someone else. Allen, for his part, is willing to cheerfully go along with whatever's happening, and he'll have you know that back in college he was known to have the odd beer or two - even on weeknights! Hoo-nelly!

Anyway, that's me done.