Character Creation: Jumpers

Is it a movie with Hayden Christensen? Is it a sweater? Is it a Third Eye Blind song? NO! It's an RPG.

The Game: Jumpers
The Publisher: Pawn & Hex 
Degree of Familiarity: None
Books Required: Just the one

Just fell down a bit of a rabbit hole trying to remember where I got this PDF, since I didn't buy it on DTRPG and it's not like me to pirate games. Finally figured out that the author bought ad space in curse the darkness, a lifetime ago. (So dramatic.)

Anyway, finally getting around to reading this game, and it's about people who zip through the multiverse without any control over where they're going. The book itself has the conceit that the Jumpers RPG actually exists as an RPG within the same multiverse as the game is actually happening, so it has little notes from various jumpers along the way, who are commenting on how surreal it is to see the life they live depicted as entertainment. I actually really like that, both the "running commentary" thing (see also: Monsters) and the meta-stuff of having the game as a game and also as "reality."

What I don't like is the conceit that the players create themselves as characters and then have adventures, but that's just a personal preference. The reasons for doing it make sense in context (and mostly boil down to: it's far easier to answer the question "what do you do?" when the "you" in question is actually "you"), but it's still a form of play I don't enjoy much.

The character creation for this game is at the end of the book, which is an interesting design choice. I have to say, too, that as I'm reading, the game grows on me. Mostly it's the interstitial comments, not the meta-commentary so much (there are whole paragraphs with the word "BORING" written on them, which is a bold move from a marketing standpoint), but just the idea of the game. You're effectively multi-dimension hobos, no idea when or where you're going to go next. Reminds me a lot of The Time Traveler's Wife, actually.

So, character creation. I ain't making myself, but as with the last time I made a character in a game that asked me to do that, I'll make someone with whom I have some shit in common. So let's say my character is someone like me at 30. Married, recently unemployed, a kid on the way, not at all the kind of person who would relish the idea of suddenly vanishing into the ether...but shit ain't fair.

I'll say my character was employed, until recently, by a dot-com as a staff artist (meaning he became a jumper around the early 2000s when the bubble burst). This, of course, is a pretty wide deviation from my own skill set, since I can't art my way out of a wet paper bag, but what the hey. So how do I start the chargen process? Attributes, I'll bet.

Yep! But, appropriately, I can set the Attributes to where they would logically be (see, if you're going to tell people to make themselves as characters, you should definitely not make chargen random or point-buy, and buckle in for some arguments). Well, my hypothetical artist has worked at a desk for the last however many years, so since 2 or 3 is average, here, I'll make Strength, Stamina, and Will 2 and Agility, Intelligence, and Perception 3.

That sets Derived Attributes; Toughness is 4, Athleticism is 5, Comprehension is 5, Focus is 5, Intuition is 6, Speed is 5.

Now, the last set of Attributes are magical in nature, and since "magic" is hard to gauge in the real world where it doesn't exist, they recommend doing these randomly. So I shall. Going in order for Control, power, and Awareness, I get 5(!), 5 (holy shit), and 4. I'm a goddamn wizard. Basically this means I have a shitload of aptitude for magic but I wouldn't realize that until I started jumping. Cool.

Pools! More dice involved. I take the levels (totals) from the three categories of Attributes and roll them to see how many Health, Stability, and Magic points I get. That'd be 7, 8, and 14 dice, respectively. So, 28 Health, 32 Stability, 46 Magic (kinda shit roll there at the end).

Skills, then. Again, I just pick what's appropriate and at the levels (or LVLs, as this game says) that make sense. That's...daunting. I can't decide if this would harder to do for a real person or for a dude I'm just making up.

Well, right off the bat, my character has an art or art history degree, so Art History and Drawing make sense. He's got to be able to work on computers, so Computer Use and Computer: Art Software (I'm sure there's a better name for it but it's really not in my wheelhouse, so good enough). History of the European and American variety, as let's assume he minored in History. Literature, sure. Piloting: Car, Medicine: First Aid (took a class when he found out his wife was expecting), and Research.

Anything else? I think that's good, actually. So how do we do LVLs? They range 1-10, where 1 is a very basic understanding of the skill and 10 is being a world-class authority. I feel like the range breaks down a little at the 7/8/9 range, because you can be highly trained in something, do it for a living, and still be absolutely shit at it, but that's fine. For my guy, I'll say that Drawing is 8 (he's good at it and he does it for a living, plus he has years of practical experience and education in it), Art History and Art Software are 7 (likewise), Computer Use is 6 (not as much academic training, but lots of practice and he stays current), Histories are both 5 (fairly extensive schooling, but he's forgotten some), Literature, Research, and Car are 4 (Lit was never his primary interest, and he drives as well as a normal person in ~2000), First Aid is 3 (one class, never used in earnest).

Weight Capacity is 40 lbs, Jump Capacity is 900 lbs. What on earth does that mean? It means I can carry 40 lbs without strain, but I can jump with up to 900 lbs of shit. Not that I can remotely carry that much, but holy shit. I'll have no problem taking things with me, if I want to.

Now, the next few steps say to complete after the first jump, but eh. Let's name him Gene Kimbrough. He's 30, white, brown hair, blue eyes, just shy of 6 foot, getting a little chubby round the middle. He's got a tribal tattoo around his left bicep (it was the 90s, shut up).

At present, he's got: Blue slacks, button-down shirt, blue and gray tie, black shoes, black socks, wallet, car keys, cell phone, pen, wedding ring, black leather belt, tin of mints. That's it. Gene was at a job interview. He left the interview (felt it went pretty well, too), got his parking validated, walked out to the parking lot, and...faded out. Will Gene ever get home again and get to meet his impending kiddo? Probably not, based on what I'm reading. Kinda tragic, really.

And that'll do it. That was actually a lot easier than I was thinking, based on the sheet. Books, cover, etc.