Character Creation: World of Tales from the Crypt

Guess what, boils and ghouls! It's time once again to delve into the frightful process of scareacter creation! With a few strokes of a pen (or a sword, an an ax - whatever works!) we can create a pitiful protagonist to fold, spindle, and mutilate! And I'm not just talking about the character sheet!

OK, I'm not going to try and do this whole thing as the Cryptkeeper.

The Game: The World of Tales From the Crypt
The Publisher: West End Games
Degree of Familiarity: None with the game, watched the show and the movies
Books Required: Tales from the Crypt and the Masterbook core

Much like The World of Species, this game is a Masterbook setting. I admit that I wasn't hopeful about it when I started reading. I don't know why (probably because of when the game was made?), but I was expecting a fairly generic horror game. Instead, though, the game really embraces the episodic format of the show, and provides a framework for jumping from setting to setting. Basically the PCs all got the Cryptkeeper's attention and he's got them trapped in his manor, putting them in "shells" to amuse himself and have them run mysterious errands. Death might or might not be permanent, and you might even be able to escape, someday.

Also, characters are assumed to have some kind of flaw, which is entirely appropriate to the source material. Protagonists in Tales from the Crypt (and the EC horror comics that inspired it) weren't usually good people, and even the ones who were tended to be profoundly unlucky. I think this game could actually be a lot of fun. 

With all of that in mind, let's do a character! I had a kind of half-formed concept. I want to make a character who killed someone in a roundabout way, maybe by sabotaging a car or something, but who has no stomach for violence or blood. Actually, yeah, I got it. 

My character's name is Walt Creighton. He works as a mechanic in a mom n' pop garage (perhaps in the town of Gainesford, which is the included setting in the book). His boss is - rather, was - a highly unpleasant bully named Chris "Beef" Wellington. Beef's dad hired Walt, but then died and left the place to his son, and Beef couldn't fire Walt - he's too good of a mechanic and he likes tormenting him too much. Walt, for his part, is a bit of a milquetoast, shies away from conflict, and gets sick or faints at the sight of blood. What he is good at, however, is his job, and one day after Beef ripped off a bandage on Walt's hand just to gross him out, Walt decided he'd had enough. He sabotaged Beef's car the next day, said car crashed into a telephone pole, and now Beef's widow, whom Walt has always had a stammering crush on, owns the shop. Everything's coming up Walt.

(Except, of course, that Walt's going to find himself a pawn of the Cryptkeeper, so, y'know, them's the brakes! Hehehehehehe!) Ahem.

That's good for concept, on we go to Attributes. I get 68 points to split between the 8 attributes, which are Agility, Dexterity, Endurance, Strength, Intellect, Mind, Confidence, and Charisma. (Note that if I were playing Walt in a Tales From the Crypt campaign, his physical attributes would change as he jumps from shell to shell.)

Well, I know that Dexterity, Intellect, and Mind should be Walt's strengths, while Strength and Confidence should be lower than average. Everything else can be pretty much on par, I guess (I think it's interesting that the system splits Confidence and Charisma; likeability is the latter, but strength of personality is the former, making it quite possible for Walt to be trustworthy and "nice" while still being kinda spineless). 

Agility 7
Dexterity 11
Endurance 7
Strength 6
Intellect 11
Mind 12
Confidence 6
Charisma 7

This means my Toughness is 8, and I've got 5 Life Points. I get 23 skill points, which I use to buy skill adds. So let's allocate skills thusly:

Stealth 3
Dodge 3
Lock Picking 1
Vehicle Piloting (Car/Truck) 3
Vehicle Piloting (Motorcycle) 3
Deduction 2
Perception 3
Navigation 1
Vehicle Mechanic (Car/Truck) 3
Specialization: Sabotage 2

And now, Advantages and Compensations. These are arranged in tiers, and I get 3 Column I, 2 Column II, and one Column III, and a matching set of Compensations (flaws, y'know). I already have my Column III Compensation, though; in this game everyone has Enemy (The Cryptkeeper). Let's do Compensations first, since I know more or less what I want. I'll take a Quirk (CII): "Faints/vomits at the sight of blood," and another Quirk (CII) "Hatred of bullies." For the CIs, I'll take Prejudice (Walt is an obvious easy target and he attracts dickheads), Employed (this is kind of cheap since we're not likely to be in-setting where Walt works, but whatever, a bunch of the sample characters have it), and Handicap (Asthma, affects Endurance). 

And now the useful stuff! For my CIs, I'll take Skill Bonus (Vehicle Piloting and Vehicle Mechanic), Equipment (Walt always seems able to find tools), and Skill Adds (I'll take Science/Mechanical). 

For the CIIs, I'll take Additional Skills (and bump Science up to 3), and Trademark Specialization (Sabotage is now +3). 

For my CIII, I'll take Additional Attribute Point and bump up Dexterity. 

And that's everything! Description time! Walt is short and skinny. Like most mechanics, he's constantly greasy, but he's cleaner than most because he wears eye protection coveralls and generally tries to keep from getting too grimy (which Beef used to make fun of, before his unfortunate jaunt around Dead Man's Curve!). He has thinning brown hair and dull gray eyes, and he flosses diligently.