Character Creation: Blood Games II

Last post of the day, although probably more chargen posts than usual in the next few weeks, since I'm off work.

The Game: Blood Games II
The Publisher: Better Mousetrap Games, through the Flying Mice imprint
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

So, right off the bat I feel like I owe this game an apology. I got it in a bundle a long time ago, and every time I saw it on my list I kind of rolled my eyes and kept going, because I figured it was either a D&D clone (and I've got so many of those in bundles) or a game that was dark and edgy and death metal and so on. But in reading it, I admit it's kinda got my attention. Like, the fiction isn't terrific (but when is gaming fiction terrific, after all?), but the idea of the game, in which humans used to be prey animals and then science came along and saved us from the monsters in the dark is a neat turnaround on the way that setup usually goes. That'd be in various White Wolf games where magic is dying because big nasty science made it so magic doesn't work because people don't believe in it (I'm way oversimplifying, obviously). It's nice to see the shoe on the other foot, as it were.

So who do we play here?

Sounds good. The "two types" mentioned are "path characters" who have mystical shit going on, and non-path characters who don't.

Moving along into chargen, I note that the assumption is that when characters aren't having adventures, they're just living a normal life, and then each adventure defines a year in the character's life, though they probably don't take a whole year. I kinda like that; downtime folded into the game play.

Ok, then, on we go. The first thing in the chargen section is a big chart that means nothing to me. Cool, moving on. Next page talks about the "Directed Method" of chargen, which is effectively point buy. I skipped ahead and the only other method I see is templates, so I'll stick with point-buy.

I split 44 points between Strength, Coordination, Agility, Endurance, and Charisma. OK, sure. Getting less friendly to this game now. There is no context for any of this and I don't know what I should focus on if I want to play path vs. non-path or whatever. Ugh. Well, guess I'll skip ahead a bit.

OK, wow, that didn't help. This game is kind of a heartbreaker. It seems to be built to play a kind of Supernatural, sorta-kinda setup, wherein a disparate group of people fight monsters, but there's so little attention paid to building the setting past the first 10 pages or so and the organization of the book is so poor that it's hard to know. With that said, it looks like the intent is for you to be able to slide back and forth in the lives and careers of these characters, and for character generation to be a fluid, ongoing thing. Want to run a flashback before the characters encountered Count Chocula (or whatever)? Cool, slide the characters back to 1970 when they were in high school or whatever.

Unfortunately, the lack of a coherent introduction chapter makes it really hard to figure out what's going on, and of course there's no example of chargen, blargh. OK, fuck it. I'll just try and work my way through sequentially and see where that lands me.

44 points in those traits, and...oh, hey. It looks like this makes the character at age 10, and then as chargen progresses we add on. That's pretty cool. Bummer they didn't say that up front or provide a running example.

Well, dividing those points up evenly would give me 8 with 4 left over. I'll do that, and put two in Charisma and two in Endurance, why not.

Then I get 180 points to divide between IQ, MAG (which I assume is magic), and Lifestyle, but I do this with that chart I mentioned. If I want to be a path character, which I do, I use the MAG 2 column. Fine. I'll put 80 into MAG, and 50 into each of the others. Gives me an IQ of 109, MAG 2, Middle Class Lifestyle.

Now we're into schooling. I select a middle school four times (that is, four years of middle school). Wow, this is granular in a way that I kind of like; seems to be approaching lifepaths? We'll see.

So, looking at middle school, I'll start easy and pick public middle school. Sure. I get a skill, and there's a list, and...oy. Convince and Goad are both skills. Really? Blargh. I'll take Gymnastics. Actually I'll just stay here for all four years, so I'll boost Strength, Coordination, and React. I'll double React and Coordination.

Cool, now I'm 14 and going to high school. Oh, this is funny. Going to a parochial high school requires that you're a "strong believer." Um, from experience, no it doesn't. Let's stick with public, for now. I'll take Biology, Overdo, Charisma, and Research, and I'll double Charisma and Research.

OK, now college. I'm only middle class, so I can't get into liberal arts college without a roll for a waiver. At some point I should think about this guy and who he is. Let's do that now.

Hamish Link Benter (his parents were big video games fans and "Hamish" is a family name; he goes by "Ben") had a pretty standard middle class upbringing. His parents both had jobs, neither of which they were especially enthused by, and Ben attended the public schools in his home town (I'm thinking California, but not one of the more interesting cities - someplace that was OK during the 90s but has a growing meth problem now). Ben wanted to go to college, but his father thoroughly freaked him out about taking loans and he sure as shit wasn't getting a scholarship, so he went to a trade school instead. Let's say...barkeep. (In California it's legal for people to serve alcohol in restaurants at 18.) That's two years, and I'll take Endear and Adapt as skills.

So then at 20, he can work as a barkeep. Every six years in that profession, I get a new skill, and every two years, I can check for a promotion (which also raises my Lifestyle). The only dice I see mentioned in this book are d20s, which sucks because I'm trying to roll under a 7, but whatevs.

So let's assume Ben works as a bartender for three years. That puts him at 23, and I can check for a promotion when he's 22. Just a moment. Made it! So if I'm reading this right, I'm middle class now.

For skills, I'll take Drinking, Business, and Convince, and double Convince. Now I've gotta decide what I want to do. Stay a barkeep? Try and go to college? I get the chance for a promotion next year. I'll stick it out for one more year and take Operate as a skill. Nope, no promotion. Ben is 24. Seems like he can manage two more years as a bartender. To dip back into the fiction, I'll say Ben went from working at restaurants to working at a wine bar. Tips are better, hours are better, and he's got time to read more, but he's not really interested in viticulture so he needs to do something else with his life eventually. Psychology and Business are my skills, and rolling for promotion...nope. OK, fuck this. Ben's gonna try and go to college. I can roll for a waiver. Yes, rolled a 1! (Don't say that often.) Got into college. Four years, four skills, and I graduate with a degree. I'll take Research, Drinking, INT, and Biology, and double Research and INT.

I figure Ben went to college and majored in Biology (something he'd always been interested in), and did OK his first year, but his sophomore year he fell in with some younger, dumber students and wound up partying too much (and they loved him because he was a bartender and could mix drinks for them). He buckled down his junior year and actually became a good student, and graduated on time, but it was close.

Last one, because I want to be done with this: Age 30. Let's do some supernatural shit. Ben graduates from college, a little late in life, and is considering grad school, going back to bar tending, or figuring out what else he might do, when he starts dating a girl named Abby. Abby is Wiccan (Wicca is a big thing in this game), and Ben isn't, but he's pretty familiar with it (I figure his mother might have been Wiccan for a while). Abby and Ben live together for a bit, and then Abby drops a bombshell - she's been sizing him up to become a Hunter. There are monsters in the world. You're a wizard, Harry, whatever.

Ben thinks it's nonsense at first, but then Abby shows him - there's magic out there, but also vampires and demons and so forth. Ben figures that he's got very little else on his plate, and agrees. He's still not taking it terribly serious, but that's gonna change hella quick.

So as a Hunter, I get +3 to all five of my base attributes, 4 Luck points, and access to the "Dash" skill, whatever that means. I think that'll do it, I just gotta transfer this shit to the real sheet.

Ben is white, tall, sallow, and has thinning sandy hair and deep set blue eyes. He favors knit shirts with big sleeves that he can roll up, and blue jeans (he hates wearing an apron). Since becoming a Hunter he's filled out and gotten more physically fit, and he's extremely likable (his CHA is maxed, y'see).

OK, I have to say, I gotta take back some of the shit I was talkin' about this game. I still have niggles (it's badly organized, the setting isn't explained well, the book needs an editor, skills are way too granular) but the worksheet actually does make it easier to slide characters back to whatever year. That's a cool feature.

That's me done, anyway!