Character Creation: They Became Flesh

Got a little behind on my two-a-week plan, but I can probably catch up quickly.

The Game: They Became Flesh
The Publisher: Two Scooters Press, but there doesn't seem to be any way to buy this game anymore
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

 

They Became Flesh was one of the earlier Kickstarter failures in the RPG industry. Not that it failed - the KS made nearly $7500 on a $1500 goal, which is pretty respectable (particularly back in 2011). No, it failed because, I think, the creators overpromised (hoodies! dice!) and then just...vanished.

I have a hard copy because I was at GenCon 2012 and picked one up, but, to read the comments on the KS, a lot of folks didn't get what they pledged for. Now, I know very well that it's entirely possible that most folks did get their stuff and it's just the few complainers who didn't, but they can seem like a majority if more folks don't speak up and say "hey, got mine." For a while, even daring to suggest that maybe this wasn't a total scam and the creators weren't terrible people was a good way to get dogpiled. Funny old thing, life.

Anyway, to my great annoyance, I printed out one of the character sheets many moons ago, but I printed the wrong one, the character sheets aren't in the PDF of the game I have in my hard drive, the game's not available for sale anywhere that I can find, and I can't even find it for illegal download (I don't download stuff I haven't actually bought, but I do sometimes download stuff if I've bought it but lost the PDF). All of this to say that I'm not attaching a sheet even though one exists, which annoys my record-keeping brain.

They Became Flesh is a weird game in that it asks for two GMs - one playing God, one playing Humanity, and everyone else plays a Fallen Angel. Who controls what in the narrative is pretty firmly defined, which is good, and the whole point of the game is that as angels perform miracles, they lock themselves in to either staying Fallen, joining Humanity, or finding redemption. It looks like an interesting game and I'd actually be interested in playing it, but if I can't find an angel playsheet that's gonna dim my enthusiasm. I guess I could photocopy the relevant page from the book like it's the fucking 90s or something. Although actually, looking at the sheet there's not really much to it, so I might not really need it.

Moving along. The first thing the angels' players would do in a game is choose something that marks us as the Fallen. Since it's just me, I shall choose. I kinda like "discordant halos that suck up the light."

Now I need to decide on a name and three things about the angel, specifically why I love humans, why I love my fellow Fallen angels, and one thing I miss about Heaven. I shall name my Fallen angel Ruchiel (it's in the list of suggested names, but I like it).

Ruchiel loves Humanity for its hunger. Humans will eat or find a way to eat anything, and Ruchiel finds that fascinating, in a "kid watching a spider eat ants" kind of way.

Ruchiel loves his fellow Fallen for their integrity. To him, defying the Almighty, for whatever reason, speaks well of the angel who would dare to do it (of course, he would think that).

Finally, Ruchiel misses the soul-nourishment of Heaven. Angels in Heaven don't eat, but they are fulfilled and sated by love and light. Down here on Earth, Ruchiel has to fill his gullet with food and water just like any other living thing. It lends itself to some interesting experiences, sure, but it's just not as fulfilling as what he was born to.

And that's actually it. I picture Ruchiel as a man in his 20s, thin, dirty, dressed in rags and always barefoot. Actually, I'm kind of picturing him a little like Ben Whislaw (who played the lead in Perfume), but, y'know, without the creepy murdery undertone.